_Cummings._--"I won't conceal my belief that he will think so. But there can be no question with him when"-- _General Wyatt._--"When you tell him our story?" After a moment: "Yes, he has a right to know it--as the rest of the world knows it. You must tell him, sir." _Cummings_, gently.--"No, he need know nothing beyond the fact of this resemblance to some one painfully associated with your past lives. He is a man whose real tenderness of heart would revolt from knowledge that could inflict further sorrow upon you." _General Wyatt._--"Sir, will you convey to this friend of yours an old man's very humble apology, and sincere prayer for his forgiveness?" _Cummings._--"He will not exact anything of that sort. The evidence of misunderstanding will be clear to him at a word from me." _General Wyatt._--"But he has a right to this explanation from my own lips, and-- Sir, I am culpably weak. But now that I have missed seeing him here, I confess that I would willingly avoid meeting him. The mere sound of his voice, as I heard it before I saw him, in first coming upon you, was enough to madden me. Can you excuse my senseless dereliction to him?" _Cummings._--"I will answer for him." _General Wyatt._--"Thanks. It seems monstrous that I should be asking and accepting these great favours. But you are doing a deed of charity to a helpless man utterly beggared in pride." He chokes with emotion, and does not speak for a moment. "Your friend is also--he is not also--a clergyman?" _Cummings_, smiling.--"No. He is a painter." _General Wyatt._--"Is he a man of note? Successful in his profession?" _Cummings._--"Not yet. But that is certain to come." _General Wyatt._--"He is poor?" _Cummings._--"He is a young painter." _General Wyatt._--"Sir, excuse me. Had he planned to remain here some time yet?" _Cummings_, reluctantly.--"He has been sketching here. He had expected to stay through October." _General Wyatt._--"You make the sacrifice hard to accept--I beg your pardon! But I must accept it. I am bound hand and foot." _Cummings._--"I am sorry to have been obliged to tell you this." _General Wyatt._--"I obliged you, sir; I obliged you. Give me your advice, sir; you know your friend. What shall I do? I am not rich. I don't belong to a branch of the government service in which people enrich themselves. But I have my pay; and if your friend could sell me the pictures he's been painting here"-- _Cummings._--"That's quite impossible. There is no form in which I could propose such a thing to a man of his generous pride." _General Wyatt._--"Well, then, sir, I must satisfy myself as I can to remain his debtor. Will you kindly undertake to tell him?" _An Elderly Serving-Woman_, who appears timidly and anxiously at the right-hand door.--"General Wyatt." _General Wyatt_, with a start.--"Yes, Mary! Well?" _Mary_, in vanishing.--"Mrs. Wyatt wishes to speak with you."