Harpar questioned me closely and keenly as to the reasons that prompted this act of mine,--an act all the more remarkable, as, to use his own words, “We were men who had no friendship for each other, actually strangers; and,” added he, significantly, “the sort of fellows who, somehow, do not usually 'hit it off' together. You a man of leisure, with your own dreamy mode of life; I, a hard worker, who could not enjoy idleness; and in this sense, far more likely to hold each other cheaply than otherwise.” I attempted to account for this piece of devotion as best I might, but not very successfully, since I was only endeavoring to explain what I really did not well understand myself. Nor could a vague desire to do something generous, merely because it _was_ generous, satisfy the practical intelligence of him who heard me. “Well,” said he, at last, “all that machinery you have described is so new and strange to me, I can tell nothing as to how it ought to work; but I'm as grateful to you as a man can be for a service which he could not have rendered _himself_, nor has the slightest notion of what could have prompted _you_ to do. Now, let me hear by what chance you came here?” “You must listen to a long story to learn that,” said I; and as he declared that he had nothing more pressing to do with his time, I began, almost as I have begun with my reader. On my first mention of Crofton, he asked me to repeat the name; and when I spoke of meeting Miss Herbert at the Milford station, he slightly moved his chair, as if to avoid the strong light from the window; but from that moment till I finished, he never interrupted me by a word, nor interposed a question. “And it was she gave you that old seal-ring I see on your finger?” said he, at last. “Yes,” said I. “How came you to guess that?” “Because _I_ gave it to her the day she was sixteen! I am her father.” I drew a long breath, and could only clutch his arm with astonishment, without being able to speak. “It's all well-known in England, now. Everybody has been paid in full, my creditors have met in a body, and signed a request to me to come back and recommence business. They have done more; they have bought up the lease of the Foundry, and sent it out to me. Ay, and old Elkanah's mortgage, too, is redeemed, and I don't owe a shilling.” “You must have worked hard to accomplish all this?” “Pretty hard, no doubt. You remember those little boats with the holes in 'em at Lindau. _They_ did the business for me. I was fool enough at that time to imagine that you had got a clew to my discovery, and were after me to pick up all the details. I ought to have known better! It was easy enough to see that _you_ could have no head for anything with a 'tough bone' in it. Light, thoughtless creatures of _your_ kind are never dangerous anywhere!” I was not quite sure whether I was expected to return thanks for this speech in my favor, and therefore only made some very unintelligible mutterings.