circumstances, that is all;" and Joey, no longer daring to
trust himself with others, quitted the room, and went to his own
apartment. As soon as he was there, he knelt down and returned thanks,
not for the death of Furness, but for the removal of the load which had
so oppressed his mind. In an hour his relief was so great that he felt
himself sufficiently composed to go downstairs; he went into the
drawing-room to find Emma, but she was not there. He longed to have
some explanation with her, but it was not until the next day that he had
an opportunity.

"I hardly know what to say to you," said our hero, "or how to explain my
conduct of yesterday."

"It certainly appeared very strange, especially to Captain B---, who
told me that he thought you were mad."

"I care little what he thinks, but I care much what you think, Emma; and
I must now tell you what, perhaps, this man's death may permit me to do.
That he has been most strangely connected with my life is most true; he
it was who knew me, and who would, if he could, have put me in a
situation in which I must either have suffered myself to be thought
guilty of a crime which I am incapable of; or, let it suffice to say,
have done, to exculpate myself, what, I trust, I never would have done,
or ever will do. I can say no more than that, without betraying a
secret which I am bound to keep, and the keeping of which may still
prove my own destruction. When you first saw me on the wayside, Emma,
it was this man who forced me from a happy home to wander about the
world; it was the reappearance of this man, and his recognition of me
that induced me to quit Gravesend so suddenly. I again met him, and
avoided him when he was deserting; and I trusted that, as he had
deserted, I could be certain of living safely in this town without
meeting with him. It was his reappearance here, as a deserter taken up,
which put me in that state of agony which you have seen me in for these
last three weeks; and it was the knowledge that, after his punishment,
he would be again free, and likely to meet with me when walking about
here, which resolved me to quit Portsmouth, as I said to you yesterday
morning. Can you, therefore, be surprised at my emotion when I heard
that he was removed, and that there was now no necessity for my quitting
my kind patrons and you?"

"Certainly, after this explanation, I cannot be surprised at your
emotion; but what does surprise me, Mr O'Donahue, is that