“Keep back, Charles!” whispered Halbert, as he rose from the bedside; “the sight of you might awaken darker feelings, and he seems subdued and softened now. There may yet be hope.” Hope!--the echo of that blessed word has surely reached the quick ear of the sufferer; and it draws from him a painful moan and bitter repetition as he turns his weary form on his couch again: “Hope! who speaks of hope to me?” “I do,” said Halbert Melville, mildly looking upon the ghastly face whose eyes of supernatural brightness were again fixed upon him. “I do, Forsyth; I, who have sinned as deeply, and in some degree after the same fashion as you. I am commissioned to speak of hope to all--of hope, even on the brink of the grave--of hope to the chief of sinners. Yes, I am sent to speak of hope,” he continued, growing more and more fervent, while the sick man’s fascinated attention and glowing eyes followed each word he uttered and each motion of his lifted hand. “Yes, of hope a thousand times higher in its faintest aspirations than the loftiest ambition of the world.” “Ay, Melville,” he murmured, feebly overcome by his weakness and emotion. “Ay, but not for me, not for one like me. Why do you come here to mock me?” he added fiercely, after a momentary pause; “why do you come here to insult me with your offers of hope? I am beyond its reach. Let me alone; there is no hope, no help for me!” and again his voice sunk into feebleness, as he murmured over and over these despairing words, like, Charles Hamilton said afterwards, the prolonged wail of a lost soul. “Listen to me, Forsyth,” said Halbert, seating himself by the bedside, and bending over the sufferer. “Listen to me! You remember how _I_ denied my God and glorified in the denial when last I saw you. You remember how _I_ renounced my faith and hope,” and Halbert, pale with sudden recollection, wiped the cold perspiration from his forehead. “You know, likewise, how I left my home in despair--such despair as you experience now. Listen to me, Forsyth, while I tell you how I regained hope.”