warmth and good food had filled up his hollow cheeks, but still his
countenance was a curious one; and never, until my dying day, can I
forget the rapture of entreaty on that man's upturned face. It
brings the tears into my own eyes now to recollect its beseeching
expression. I do not think I ever _saw_ prayer before or since. He
did not perceive me, for I had hidden behind a sheltering curtain,
to listen to his strange, earnest petitions; so he could not know
that anybody in the house was stirring, for he knelt at the back,
and all my fussings had taken place in the front, and he could not,
therefore, have been doing anything for effect.

There, exactly where he had crouched a wretched, way-worn tramp in
pouring rain, he knelt now with the flood of sunshine streaming down
on his uplifted face, whilst he prayed for the welfare and
happiness, individually and collectively, of every living creature
within the house. Then he stood up and lifted his hat from the
ground; but before he replaced it on his head, he turned, with a
gesture which would have made the fortune of any orator,--a gesture
of mingled love and farewell, and solemnly blessed the roof-tree
which had sheltered him in his hour of need. I could not help being
struck by the extraordinarily good language in which he expressed
his fervent desires, and his whole bearing seemed quite different to
that of the silent, half-starved man we had kept in the kitchen
these last three days. I watched him turn and go, noiselessly
closing the garden gate after him, and--shall I confess it?--my
heart has always felt light whenever I think of that swagger's
blessing. When we all met at breakfast I had to take his part, and
tell of the scene I had witnessed; for everybody was inclined to
blame him for having stolen away, scarcely without saying good-bye,
or expressing a word of thanks for the kindness he had received.