Charley watched him for a moment, thoughtfully, and then he proceeded to his sister’s quiet and humble lodging. On reaching the house he found the street door ajar, and he entered without noise. Previous inquiries had made him acquainted with the room she occupied, and he stole up to it silently. Her room-door was partly open, and lie peeped in. He saw Lotte seated at work upon the sofa. At her knee was a bassinet, in which lay a sleeping child. A pang shot through his frame, and every limb quivered. Lotte looked paler and thinner than when last they parted, and she seemed to have been weeping. She did not raise her eyes from her work, but her needle went swiftly and continuously. He glided into the room and stood before her; she heard him not, nor did she see him. In a low tone he said-- “Lotte!” She started, rose up with her face towards him, and remained motionless; but she bent upon him an intensely appealing look, which seemed to ask him to look down through her eyes to her heart and read her soul. He did gaze into their clear depths, then he turned his eyes upon the child; once more he looked into her luminous orbs shining upon him like stars, and he opened wide his arms. “My dear sister!” he exclaimed, with deep emotion. From her bosom burst an hysterical cry. She sprang forward and laid her head upon his breast, sobbing as though her poor sorely tried heart would break. CHAPTER III.--LOTTE’S FIRST LOVE. _Jul._ Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to-night; It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say--it lightens. Sweet, good night! This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. Good night--good night! as sweet repose and rest Come to thy heart as that within my breast! _Rom_. Oh! wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? _Jul._ What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? _Rom_. The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. _Jul_. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it. Shakspere. So Hugh. Riversdale had returned home to England. How did it come to pass? The paragraph in the _Times_ correctly detailed what had happened to him on his voyage out up to the moment of placing him insensible on board the “Ripon.” What followed may be given in a few words.