I beseeching her to explain her
words; she putting me by, and continuing to recommend the doctor for a
friend. "The doctor!" I cried at last; "the man who killed my father?"

"Nay," said she, "let us be just. I do believe, before Heaven, he played
the friendliest part. And he alone, Asenath, can protect you in this
land of death."

At this the doctor returned, leading our two horses; and when we were
all in the saddle, he bade me ride on before, as he had matter to
discuss with Mrs. Fonblanque. They came at a foot's-pace, eagerly
conversing in a whisper; and presently after the moon rose and showed
them looking eagerly into each other's faces as they went, my mother
laying her hand upon the doctor's arm, and the doctor himself, against
his usual custom, making vigorous gestures of protest or asseveration.

At the foot of the track which ascended the talus of the mountain to his
door, the doctor overtook me at a trot.

"Here," he said, "we shall dismount; and as your mother prefers to be
alone, you and I shall walk together to my house."

"Shall I see her again?" I asked.

"I give you my word," he said, and helped me to alight. "We leave the
horses here," he added. "There are no thieves in this stone wilderness."

The track mounted gradually, keeping the house in view. The windows were
once more bright; the chimney once more vomited smoke; but the most
absolute silence reigned, and, but for the figure of my mother very
slowly following in our wake, I felt convinced there was no human soul
within a range of miles. At the thought, I looked upon the doctor,
gravely walking by my side, with his bowed shoulders and white hair, and
then once more at his house, lit up and pouring smoke like some
industrious factory. And then my curiosity broke forth. "In Heaven's
name," I cried, "what do you make in this inhuman desert?"

He looked at me with a peculiar smile, and answered with an evasion:

"This is not the first time," said he, "that you have seen my furnaces
alight. One morning, in the small hours, I saw you driving past; a
delicate experiment miscarried; and I cannot acquit myself of having
startled either your driver or the horse that drew you."

"What!" cried I, beholding again in fancy the antics of the figure,
"could that be you?"

"It was I," he replied; "but do not fancy that I was mad. I was in
agony. I had been scalded cruelly."

We were now near the house, which, unlike the ordinary houses of the
coun