“No, I think he was right, and I am very, very grateful to you for telling me about my father.” After a while she continued: “But, Mr. Travers, I hardly know what to say about the dream. I have heard and read of such things, and--I was just what he imagined--just like the girl he saw in his dream. And when my life was so miserable, if I had known where to find him--if mother could have told me--I should have gone to him to ask him to save me. But--how can I say it? Don't you think, Mr. Travers, that if dreams and warnings were sent to us--if good spirits could let us know things in that way and tell us what to do, that it would happen oftener? ... There are always so many in distress and danger, and sometimes so little is needed to save one--a few pence, a few kind words--and yet how many fall, how many die! Even in the Regent's Canal how many poor women throw their lives away--and nothing saves them.... I am not glad to hear that it was a dream that first made my father wish to find mother--and me. I should have preferred to hear that he thought of her--of us, before he fell into such bad health, and when he was strong and happy.... Do you think his dream was sent from heaven, Mr. Travers?” “I am not prepared to express an opinion as to that, Miss Eden,” he replied, with a grave smile. “But I have been listening to your words with great interest and a little surprise. Most young ladies, I fancy, would have been deeply impressed with such a narrative, and they would readily and gladly have adopted the view that some supernatural agency had been concerned in the matter. You, strange to say, do not seem to look on yourself as a special favourite of the powers above, and think that others have as much right as yourself to be rescued miraculously from perils and sufferings. Well--you have not a romantic mind, Miss Eden.” “No, I don't think I have--I have had the same thing said to me two or three times before,” replied Fan naïvely. “But I wish you would tell me more about my father when he was healthy and happy. Was he really as handsome as he looks in the portrait? It seems so life-like that when I am looking at it I can hardly realise that he is not somewhere living on the earth, that I shall never hold his hand and hear his voice.” The old lawyer was quite ready to gratify her curiosity on the point, and told her a great deal about her father's life. “There is one thing I omitted to mention before,” he said at the end. “Your brother would gladly do anything in his power to make you happy; at the same time he wishes you to understand that in providing for you he is only carrying out his father's intentions, and that you will owe it to your father, and not to him.” “But I shall still feel the same gratitude to my brother, Mr. Travers.”