very disaster; and to feel assured that,
whatever happened, I should never lose the hope of soon meeting her
again. Of the perils that beset me, of the wrong and injury I might yet
be condemned to endure, I said nothing. Those were truths which I was
determined to conceal from her, to the last. She had suffered for me
more than I dared think of, already!

I sent my letter by hand, so as to ensure its immediate delivery. In
writing those few simple lines, I had no suspicion of the important
results which they were destined to produce. In thinking of to-morrow,
and of all the events which to-morrow might bring with it, I little
thought whose voice would be the first to greet me the next day, whose
hand would be held out to me as the helping hand of a friend.

VI.

It was still early in the morning, when a loud knock sounded at
the house-door, and I heard the landlady calling to the servant: "A
gentleman to see the gentleman who came in last night." The moment the
words reached me, my thoughts recurred to the letter of yesterday--Had
Mannion found me out in my retreat? As the suspicion crossed my mind,
the door opened, and the visitor entered.

I looked at him in speechless astonishment. It was my elder brother! It
was Ralph himself who now walked into the room!

"Well, Basil! how are you?" he said, with his old off-hand manner and
hearty voice.

"Ralph! You in England!--you here!"

"I came back from Italy last night. Basil, how awfully you're changed! I
hardly know you again."

His manner altered as he spoke the last words. The look of sorrow and
alarm which he fixed on me, went to my heart. I thought of holiday-time,
when we were boys; of Ralph's boisterous ways with me; of his
good-humoured school-frolics, at my expense; of the strong bond of union
between us, so strangely compounded of my weakness and his strength; of
my passive and of his active nature; I saw how little _he_ had changed
since that time, and knew, as I never knew before, how miserably _I_ was
altered. All the shame and grief of my banishment from home came back on
me, at sight of his friendly, familiar face. I struggled hard to keep my
self-possession, and tried to bid him welcome cheerfully; but the effort
was too much for me. I turned away my head, as I took his hand; for the
old school-boy feeling of not letting Ralph see that I was in tears,
influenced me still.

"Basil! Basil! what are you about? This won't do. Look up, and listen
to m