"I feel almost sure it was he. I was standing this morning near Chepe Cross, to let a waggon pass, when I looked up, and all at once I saw a young man of some twenty years standing likewise till it went by. The likeness struck me dumb for a moment. Gerard's brow--no, lad, not thou! Thy mother knows--Gerard's brow, and his fair hair, with the very wave it used to have about his temples; his eyes and nose too; but Agnes's mouth, and somewhat of Agnes in the way he held his head. And as I stood there, up came Leuesa and her husband, passing the youth; and before I spoke a word about him, `Saw you ever one so like Gerard?' saith she. I said, `Ay, him and Agnes too.' We watched the lad cross the street, and parting somewhat hastily from our friends, I followed him at a little distance. I held him in sight as far as Tower Street, but ere he had quite reached Mark Lane, a company of mummers, going westwards, came in betwixt and parted us. I lost sight of him but for a moment, yet when they had passed, I could see no more of him--north, south, east, nor west--than if the earth had swallowed him up. I reckon he went into an house in that vicinage. To-morrow, if the Lord will, I will go thither, and watch. And if I see him again, I will surely speak." "Stephen! O Stephen, if it should be our lost darling!" "Ay, love, if it should be! It was always possible, of course, that he might have been taken in somewhere. There are many who would have no compassion on man or woman, and would yet shrink from turning out a little child to perish. And he was a very attractive child. Still, do not hope too much, Ermine; it may be merely an accidental likeness." "If I could believe," replied Ermine, "that Countess had been anywhere near, I should think it more than possible that she had saved him." "Countess? Oh, I remember--that Jewish maiden who petted him so much. But she went to some distance when she married, if I recollect rightly." "She went to Reading. But she might not have been there always." "True. Well, I will try to find out something to-morrow night."