long list. They frightened me. Perhaps they conveyed a warning of
that which I was to endure at their owner's hands. From compassion,
I ordered the servants to take him to my wife, with word that I
wished her to set food before him, and see that it passed his lips.

So much I did for this Stranger. Now learn how he rewarded me.


He has taken my youth from me, and the most of my substance, and the
love of my wife.

From the hour when he tasted food in my house, he sat there without
hint of going. Whether from design, or because age and his
sufferings had really palsied him, he came back tediously to life and
warmth, nor for many days professed himself able to stand erect.
Meanwhile he lived on the best of our hospitality. My wife tended
him, and my servants ran at his bidding; for he managed early to make
them understand scraps of his language, though slow in acquiring
ours--I believe out of calculation, lest someone should inquire his
business (which was a mystery) or hint at his departure. I myself
often visited the room he had appropriated, and would sit for an hour
watching those fathomless eyes while I tried to make head or tail of
his discourse. When we were alone, my wife and I used to speculate
at times on his probable profession. Was he a merchant?--an aged
mariner?--a tinker, tailor, beggarman, thief? We could never decide,
and he never disclosed.

Then the awakening came. I sat one day in the chair beside his,
wondering as usual. I had felt heavy of late, with a soreness and
languor in my bones, as if a dead weight hung continually on my