These are dead, the debt is due
Dust claims dust, and we die too."

--Shelley.


The next few weeks were passed by these two subdued and altered friends
in devoted efforts to make the blind man comfortable and happy. True to
his determination, David sought and found a place to work, and after
reserving enough of his wages to supply the few necessities of his daily
life, dedicated the rest to the purchase of comforts for the poor
invalid.

Mantel acted as his almoner, and by his delicate tact and gentle manners
persuaded the proud and revengeful old man to accept the mysterious
charity. The moment the strain of perpetual beggary was taken from him,
the physical ruin which the terrible blow of the stone, the subsequent
illness, and the ensuing poverty and wretchedness had wrought, became
manifest. He experienced a sudden relapse, and began to sink into an
ominous decline.

Even had he not known the secret of his sorrow, it would have soon
become plain to his acute and watchful nurse that some hidden trouble
was gnawing at his heart, for he was taciturn, abstracted and sometimes
morose. He manifested no curiosity as to the benefactor upon whose
charity he was living, but received the alms bestowed by that unknown
hand as children receive the gifts of God--unsolicited, uncomprehended
and unobserved.

His mind, aroused by the conversation of his untiring nurse to the