"Charles Bramble?"

"Yes, sir."

"How strange is all this. How know you beyond all cavil, Leonard?"

"By the scar over the right eye. You gave it to him yourself. Don't you
remember, sir, just previous to the dog affair, for which he ran away
from home!"

"By Heaven! I believe you speak truly; and yet how strange, how more
than strange it all is, that we should meet again in this way!"

"It quite nonplussed me, sir. I thought he was a ghost at first."

"Strange, strange!" mused the elder brother. "In those days, long ago in
our childhood, he crossed my path constantly, and here he is again
athwart my hawse. By Heaven! but it is strange--wonderful, that fate
should have thrown him and Helen Huntington together again, and that
neither should know the other; and yet not so very strange, for she was
but eight years old when Charles ran away. Yes, he thwarted me then, for
even in childhood the girl fancied him above me, and now she affects him
even in his fallen fortunes."

"What shall we do, sir, now that master Charles has turned up again?"
asked Leonard Hust, in his simplicity. "We cannot testify against him
now, sir."

"No, no, no!" said the elder brother, hastily, "he must not be further
examined."