,
of noble promise. 'T was for him I began to build that baffled fabric,
'Sepulchri immemor.' For him I bought, acre on acre, all the land within
reach of Fawley,-lands twelve miles distant. I had meant to fill up the
intervening space, to buy out a mushroom earl whose woods and cornfields
lie between. I was scheming the purchase, scrawling on the county map,
when they brought the news that the boy I had just taken back to school
was dead,--drowned bathing on a calm summer eve. No, Lionel. I must go
on. That grief I have wrestled with,--conquered. I was widowed then. A
daughter still left,--the first-born, whom my father had blest on his
death-bed. I transferred all my love, all my hopes, to her. I had no
vain preference for male heirs. Is a race less pure that runs on through
the female line? Well, my son's death was merciful compared to--" Again
Darrell stopped, again hurried on. "Enough! all is forgiven in the
grave! I was then still in the noon of man's life, free to form new
ties. Another grief that I cannot tell you; it is not all conquered
yet. And by that grief the last verdure of existence was so blighted
that--that--in short, I had no heart for nuptial altars, for the social
world. Years went by. Each year I said, 'Next year the wound will be
healed; I have time yet.' Now age is near, the grave not far; now, if
ever, I must fulfil the promise that cheered my father's death-bed.
Nor does that duty comprise all my motives. If I would regain healthful
thought, manly action, for my remaining years, I must feel that one
haunting memory is exorcised and forever laid at rest. It can be so
only,--whatever my risk of new cares, whatever the folly of the hazard
at my age,--be so only by--by--" Once more Darrell paused, fixed his
eyes steadily on Lionel, and, opening his arms, cried out, "Forgive me,
my noble Lionel, that I am not contented with an heir like you; and do
not you mock at the old man who dreams that woman may love him yet, and
that his own children may inherit his father's home."

Lionel sprang to the breast that opened to him; and if Darrell had
planned how best to remove from the young man's mind forever the
possibility of one selfish pang, no craft could have attained his object
like that touching confidence before which the disparities between youth
and age literally vanished. And, both made equal, both elevated alike,
verily I know not which at the moment felt the elder or the younger! Two
noble hearts