"Roland prays that you may preserve the same forbearance you have shown hitherto, and never mention his son's name to him. Peace be to the living, as to the dead. Kitty, this changes our plans; we must all go to Cumberland--we cannot leave Roland thus!" "Poor, poor Roland!" said my mother, through her tears. "And to think that father and son were not reconciled. But Roland forgives him now--oh, yes! _now!_" "It is not Roland we can censure," said my father, almost fiercely; "it is--but enough. We must hurry out of town as soon as we can: Roland will recover in the native air of his old ruins." We went up to bed mournfully. "And so," thought I, "ends one grand object of my life!--I had hoped to have brought those two together. But, alas! what peacemaker like the grave!" CHAPTER XLVIII. My uncle did not leave his room for three days, but he was much closeted with a lawyer; and my father dropped some words which seemed to imply that the deceased had incurred debts, and that the poor Captain was making some charge on his small property. As Roland had said that he had seen the remains of his son, I took it at first for granted that we should attend a funeral, but no word of this was said. On the fourth day, Roland, in deep mourning, entered a hackney coach with the lawyer, and was absent about two hours. I did not doubt that he had thus quietly fulfilled the last mournful offices. On his return, he shut himself up again for the rest of the day, and would not see even my father. But the next morning he made his appearance as usual, and I even thought that he seemed more cheerful than I had yet known him--whether he played a part, or whether the worst was now over, and the grave was less cruel than uncertainty. On the following day, we all set out for Cumberland. In the interval, Uncle Jack had been almost constantly at the house, and, to do him justice, he had seemed unaffectedly shocked at the calamity that had befallen Roland. There was, indeed, no want of heart in Uncle Jack, whenever you went straight at it; but it was hard to find if you took a circuitous route towards it through the pockets. The worthy speculator had indeed much business to transact with my father before we left town. The _Anti-Publisher Society_ had been set up, and it was through the obstetric aid of that fraternity that the Great Book was to be ushered into the world. The new journal, the _Literary Times_, was also far advanced--not yet out, but my father was fairly in for it. There were preparations for its debut on a vast scale, and two or three gentlemen in black--one of whom looked like a lawyer, and another like a printer, and a third uncommonly like a Jew--called twice, with papers of a very formidable aspect. All these preliminaries settled, the last thing I heard Uncle Jack say, with a slap on my father's back, was, "Fame and fortune both made now!--you may go to sleep in safety, for you leave me wide awake. Jack Tibbets never sleeps!"