“To make a long story short,” continued Daniel, “there came a letter from my father, written in a very shaky style and almost incoherent in its wording, to tell me that they were in great trouble at home, and that I was to go back to them immediately. Of course I thought of money troubles--we are such sordid creatures by nature, I suppose--and I fancied there was commercial ruin at home, and thought remorsefully of all the money I had cost my father, and the little good I had ever been to him. When I got to Bayham, I found that there was something worse than want of money in the grief-stricken household. Celia had disappeared, leaving a letter for my father, in which she told him that she was going away to be married; but there were reasons why her marriage and the name of her husband should be kept a secret for some time; but that he had promised to bring her back to Bayham directly he was free to reveal his name and position. Of course we all knew what this meant; and my father and I set out to seek our poor cheated girl, with as gloomy a despair at our hearts as if we had gone to seek her in the realms of Pluto.” “And you failed?” “Yes, lad, we failed ignominiously. There were neither electric telegraphs nor private detectives in those days; and after following several false scents, and spending a great deal of money, we went back to Bayham--my father looking ten years older for his wasted labour. He died three years after that, and my mother followed him very quickly, for they were one of those old-fashioned couples who cling to each other so fondly through life that they must needs sink together into the grave. They died; and the poor girl, whom they had forgiven from the very first hour of her offending, was not permitted to comfort their last hours. They had been dead more than twelve months when I saw a woman’s faded face flit past me in the most crowded part of the Strand. I walked on a few paces, with a strange, sudden pain at my heart, and then I turned and hurried after the woman, for I knew that I had seen my sister.” There was another brief pause--broken only by the short, eager breathing of Eustace, and one profound sigh from Daniel.