Lora turned her hollow glance upon his face, and though no gleam of recognition shone in her eyes, his impressive words penetrated her soul. She threw out her arms yearningly. "It is found, it is found! Oh, thank God!" she murmured, happily. "Bring him to me, for the love of Heaven! Lay him here upon my breast, my precious little son!" "Oh, sir, then it is true she had a child; and it is living. I thought perhaps it was dead," said the poor widow. "She has a child, indeed, and she lost it in her delirious flight; but her sister found it soon afterward. It is at this moment not more than four miles from here," answered the young man, without reflecting that many things might have happened during his long imprisonment of four days in the lonely little fishing village. "Then, if you will take my advice, sir, as she is a friend of yours, you will try to get that child here as soon as possible. I will do the best I can for her, and the doctor has promised to do all in his power; but I believe that the child is the only thing that will save her life," said Dame Videlet, gravely shaking her head in its homely white cap. "It shall be brought," said Howard, earnestly, and without a doubt but that he could keep the promise thus made. Dame Videlet thanked God aloud, then added that the sooner it were brought the better it would be for the mother. All the while poor Lora lay tossing in restless pain, and begging piteously for her little child to be laid upon her breast. Howard bent over her as tenderly and gently as a brother. "Lora, my poor child, try to be patient," he said. "I will bring the child to you; only be patient a little while." But it was all in vain to preach patience to that racked heart and weary, fevered brain. He stole away, followed by despairing cries for the little child--cries that echoed in his heart and brain many days afterward, when his warm heart was half-broken because he could not keep the promise he had made in such perfect confidence and hope. "How shall I get back to the village four miles away from here?" he asked of the man who had accompanied him and was still waiting for him. "I can take you in my fishing-boat and row you there, and welcome, sir," was the hearty response. "It's a wee bit leaky, but as good as any other craft about, and there's no conveyance to be had by land." "What a great simpleton I have been, by George, never to have thought of a boat before," said Howard, looking vexed at himself. "Here I have been four days, and wanting to get back to the village badly, and never thought of all the little boats and the great, wide ocean." "Mayhap it's all for the best, sir," said the fisherman. "If you had gone back sooner, you might never have found the sick lady, your friend. You should see the hand of the Lord in it, my young sir."