CHAPTER XVI AN ACCIDENT IN THE MOUNTAINS CHAPTER XVII PROMISE OR DIE CHAPTER XVIII IN THE DEPTHS CHAPTER XIX MISS WALTON MADE OF DIFFERENT CLAY FROM OTHERS CHAPTER XX MISS WALTON MADE OF ORDINARY CLAY CHAPTER XXI PASSION AND PENITENCE CHAPTER XXII NOT A HEROINE BUT A WOMAN CHAPTER XXIII GREGORY'S FINAL CONCLUSION CHAPTER XXIV THE WORM-INFESTED CHESTNUT--GREGORY TELLS THE WORST CHAPTER XXV THE OLD HOME IN DANGER--GREGORY RETRIEVES HIMSELF CHAPTER XXVI CHANGES IN GREGORY CHAPTER XXVII PLEADING FOR LIFE AND LOVE CHAPTER XXVIII WHAT A LOVER COULD DO CHAPTER XXIX DEEPENING SHADOWS CHAPTER XXX KEPT FROM THE EVIL CHAPTER XXXI LIVE! LIVE! ANNIE'S APPEAL CHAPTER XXXII AT SEA--A MYSTERIOUS PASSENGER CHAPTER XXXIII A COLLISION AT SEA--WHAT A CHRISTIAN COULD DO CHAPTER XXXIV UNMASKED CHAPTER XXXV A CHESTNUT BURR AND A HOME CHAPTER I A HERO, BUT NOT HEROIC "Shall I ever be strong in mind or body again?" said Walter Gregory, with irritation, as he entered a crowded Broadway omnibus. The person thus querying so despairingly with himself was a man not far from thirty years of age, but the lines of care were furrowed so deeply on his handsome face, that dismal, lowering morning, the first of October, that he seemed much older. Having wedged himself in between two burly forms that suggested thrift down town and good cheer on the avenue, he appears meagre and shrunken in contrast. He is tall and thin. His face is white and drawn, instead of being ruddy with health's rich, warm blood. There is scarcely anything remaining to remind one of the period of youth, so recently vanished; neither is there the dignity, nor the consciousness of strength, that should come with maturer years. His heavy, light-colored mustache and pallid face gave him the aspect of a _blase_ man of the world who had exhausted himself and life at an age when wisely directed manhood should be just entering on its richest pleasures.