It was no wonder. Think of it! The child he adored, yet had parted with
to save her from dire poverty, remembered that sad condition to ask for
it back again, because of his love that made it sweet to her after all
these years of comfort. And of late he had been jealous, and saw, or
thought, he had no great place in her heart, and never should have.

Ah, it is a rarity to shed tears of joy! The thing is familiarly spoken
of, but the truth is that many pass through this world of tears and never
shed one such tear. The few who have shed them can congratulate William
Hope for this blissful moment after all he had done and suffered.

But the sweet girl who so surprised that manly heart, and drew those
heavenly tears, had not the key. She was shocked, surprised, distressed.
She burst out crying directly from blind womanly sympathy; and then she
took herself to task. "Oh, Mr. Hope! what have I done? Ah! I have
touched some chord of memory. Wicked, selfish girl, to distress you with
my dreams."

"Distress me!" cried Hope. "These tears you have drawn from me are pearls
of memory and drops of balm to my sore, tried heart. I, too, have lived
and struggled in a by-gone world. I had a lovely child; she made me rich
in my poverty, and happy in my homelessness. She left me--"

"Poor Mr. Hope!"

"Then I went abroad, drudged in foreign mines, came home and saw my child
again in you. I need no fairy's wand to revive the past; you are my
fairy--your sweet words recall those by-gone scenes; and wealth,
ambition, all I live for now, vanish into smoke. The years themselves
roll back, and all is once more peace--and poverty--and love."

"Dear Mr. Hope!" said Mary, and put her forehead upon his shoulder.

After a while she said, timidly, "Dear Mr. Hope, now I feel I can trust
you with anything." Then she looked down in charming confusion. "My
reminiscences--they are certainly a great mystery. But I have another
secret to confide to you, if I am permitted."

"Is the consent of some other person necessary?"

"Not exactly necessary, Mr. Hope."

"But advisable."

Mary nodded her head.

"Then take your time," said Hope. He took out his watch, and said: "I
want to go to the mine. My right-hand man reports that a ruffian has been
caught lighting his pipe in the most dangerous part after due warning. I
must stop that game at once, or we shall have a fatal accident. But I
will be back in half an hour. You can rest in my office if you a