Miss Charlotte Carlaw came down the next day and the captain conducted her to Medmer Theed's shop. The carriage in which she had arrived was left standing in the street outside the old archway, and the captain, without a word, guided her through the shop and opened the inner door and led her through. Then he came out and closed the door, and left the two women alone. He had previously prepared the shoemaker for what was to happen, and the old man had accepted it without question and appeared satisfied that she should go. As the captain stood waiting in the little shop, Medmer Theed sat on his bench, hammering softly at the leather, as of old. In the room within Miss Charlotte Carlaw had paused for a moment with her hands stretched out gropingly. 'Linda came timidly toward her. "Where are you, child?" asked the old woman; and then their hands met and they drew close together. Perhaps it was the touch of a woman's hand that 'Linda needed just then; she suddenly found herself drawing close to the strange old figure, and for the first time her tears began to flow. "Let's make a new beginning, child," said Miss Carlaw softly. "And, for both our sakes, will you promise me never to speak of what is past and ended, never to refer to any one we both knew? Will you promise that?" "Yes, I promise," whispered the girl. They came out together presently into the shop; the captain stood waiting to conduct them to the carriage. Medmer Theed still hammered softly on his leather. The girl went up to the shoemaker and put an arm about his neck and whispered his name; he looked up at her with a vacant expression, and she kissed him and murmured some broken words of thanks. He nodded his head slowly and went on with his work. He was still hammering when the carriage drove away, the captain standing bareheaded in the street, looking after them. CHAPTER XXVIII. MEDMER MELTS A SILVER SPOON. It was a clear, crisp November evening, with a touch of frost in the air, and the captain sat in his little parlour before a tiny fire, staring into the coals. Behind him on the table a candle, burning in a tall, old-fashioned candle-stick, threw a giant round-shouldered shadow of the captain on the wall and part of the ceiling of the room. Two years had gone by since the captain stood outside Medmer Theed's shop and watched the carriage roll away--two years during which he had aged a little more, and had gone but little beyond the confines of his garden.