"And here, Talton, I must apologize for my neglect to you. Your first letter, informing me you had regained your property, I received a few days preceding the discovery of my marriage with Deborah; but the distraction of my mind at that time prevented me from answering it. When I had in some degree regained my tranquillity, I wrote; but the person to whose charge I intrusted my packet, nearly two years after returned it, with the account that you were either dead, or had left the island; and as during that time, nor since, I never heard from you, I was induced to believe the former part of his intelligence. "The pleasure I yesterday experienced on beholding you, for the time banished every other reflection; but no sooner did I quit you, than remembrance, with the keenest powers, revived every former scene, and added not only to my compunction for my injuries to--, but to my sorrow, for the irretrievable loss of my beloved Ellenor." CHAPTER III. Mr. Talton remained thoughtful some minutes after the Captain had ceased speaking; then addressing him--"If you were some years younger, Howard, I should censure you severely for your conduct; but as it is, and in consideration of the punishment you have already endured, I shall suspend my lecture! Poor Ellenor! It is strange, Howard, in the course of so many years you should never have gained any intelligence, nor met with the least circumstance from which you could judge of her destiny." "It is strange, Talton. A few weeks back my nephew introduced a youth on board, whose appearance raised such emotions in my breast as I cannot attempt to describe. He was the exact resemblance of my Ellenor; his age too agrees with my son's, if living; but every hope was soon destroyed, his answers plainly proved he was not her child." A sigh of regret here burst from the bosom of the Captain; nor could he refrain an impatient exclamation against the severity of his fate, in being thus deprived of those he regarded as the blessings of his existence. "Though your life, Howard," said Mr. Talton, "has been rather out of the dull track of common occurrences, yet I would not have you think you have had more than your share of human ills; of those, believe me, all have an equal dispensation, and, sooner or later, feel the hand of adversity! As your morning of life has been clouded, you should, I think, look forward to a clear evening. You yet may find your Ellenor, and your son be restored, all your fondest desires could wish. You still have hope! Many, suffering afflictions, are bereaved of that blessing, by a fatal certainty of ill, where their happiness depends." "Certainty of ill--" repeated the Captain--"Ah, Talton, am I not chained to a woman I detest, deprived of her I idolized, and a son whose endearments and attentions might have soothed the little sorrows of my bosom? But you are a bachelor, unrestrained by any ties which can justly interest the heart, and therefore cannot judge for me."