"You speak truly," I said, "a maid is a blessing to the sick. 'Tis sweet to be well tended when you have fared hardly for days. Your kindness has set me at peace with the world again. Yesterday all was black before me, and now, I bethink me, I see a little ray of light." "'Twas a good work," said the old man, "to give you hope and set you right with yourself, if so chance we have done it. What saith the wise man, 'He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls'? But whence have you come? We would hear your story." So I told them the whole tale of my wanderings, from my coming to Kennedy to my fainting fit at their own threshold. At the story of my quarrel they listened eagerly, and I could mark their eyes flashing, and as I spake of my sufferings in the desert I could see sympathy in their faces. When I concluded, neither spake for a little, till the elder man broke silence with: "May God bless and protect you in all your goings! Well I see that you are of the upright in heart. It makes me blithe to have you in my house." The younger said nothing but rose and came to me. "M. de Rohaine," he said, speaking my name badly, "give me your hand. I honor you for a gentleman and a man of feeling." "And I am glad to give it you," said I, and we clasped hands and looked into each other's eyes. Then we stepped back well satisfied. For myself I love to meet a man, and in the great-limbed young fellow before me I found one to my liking.