The passing footsteps grew less and less frequent; what can detain them? Old Mr. Melville and his son Robert have gone to meet James and--Halbert--if Halbert be only with him, and Christian trembles as she repeats that pregnant _if_. Her heart will break if they come not soon: she cannot bear this burden of anxiety much longer. Hush! there are footsteps, and they pause at the door. Sick at heart, Christian rushes to it again with little Mary by her side; there at the threshold are her father, James, Robert; she counts them painfully, one by one; but where is Halbert? where is her boy? The long-cherished expectation is at once put to flight; the artificial strength of excitement has gone, and Christian would have fallen to the ground, but for James’s supporting arm. “Christian,” he whispered, as he led her back to her seat in the parlour again, “I know you can command yourself, and you must try to do so now, for you will need all your strength to-night.” James’s voice was hoarse, and his eyes bloodshot. Where is--what has become of Halbert? The story is soon told. When James reached Edinburgh, he had gone straight to Halbert’s lodging, and found when he arrived at it, that his brother had disappeared, gone away, whither the people knew not; his fellow-students and professors were equally ignorant; and all that he could clearly ascertain was, that the reports they had been grieved so much with were too true; that one night some weeks before the day that James went to the lodgings, Halbert had gone out, been seen in several places of the worst character, with men known as profligates, and abandoned, and had come home very late. That since then he had been like a man in despair--mad--his simple landlady said; and she pointed to the books he had left, crowding the shelves and littering the floor of her little room; that two nights before James had arrived--having been shut up all the day--he had gone suddenly out, telling her to send a parcel lying on his table as directed, the next morning. On his mantel-piece was a letter, apparently forgotten, for Christian. “Here it is,” said James in conclusion, handing it to her, “would that it could comfort you!” Christian broke the seal with eager, trembling fingers; perhaps, after all, there might be some comfort here: “CHRISTIAN,