“Here, madam, is his certificate of your uncle’s physical condition,” said De Guy, handing her the paper.

Emily read the paper, and handed it to the doctor.

“Very satisfactory,” said he; “you will pardon me for doubting your word—­”

“Don’t mention it, sir,” replied De Guy, blandly.  “I fully appreciate your motive, and honor you for it.  And you know Mr. Faxon?”

“O, yes—­what of him,” said Emily, eagerly.

“A letter from him,” replied De Guy, giving her the missive.

Emily hastily broke the seal, and, as she examined its contents, the attorney appeared uneasy, and watched her with a solicitude such as attorneys seldom manifest in their clients, especially if the pockets of the latter be empty.

“I will go immediately!” exclaimed Emily, as she finished reading the letter.  “Mr. Faxon says my Uncle Jaspar is quite a different man, and is ready to restore all my rights.”

“Finally,” said De Guy, “here is your uncle’s own signature.  This letter I wrote by his dictation, but he, with much difficulty, signed his name.”

Emily perused the paper, which was a promise that Jaspar would restore all, and concluded with an earnest request for her to return to Bellevue with all possible haste.  Emily recognized the signature, though it was apparently written by the trembling hand of a dying man.

“The papers are quite satisfactory,” said Dr. Vaudelier, as he completed the reading of the note from Jaspar.  “If you had presented them at first, I should have been spared my uncourteous suspicions.  But you will pardon them, and consider that the lady’s case requires the utmost caution.”

“It was only in deference to the lady’s nerves that I broke the intelligence gradually.  I was quite willing to sacrifice myself, for the moment, in your good opinion, for her sake.  I trust you will appreciate and regard my motives, as I do yours.”

Henry Carroll, as may be supposed, was much against the plan of Emily’s returning to Bellevue with De Guy.  But a death-bed scene was a difficult thing to reason against, and he was obliged to yield the point before the earnest eloquence of Emily, and more calm persuasions of Dr. Vaudelier.

It was arranged that Hatchie should accompany her, and that the party should take the morning boat from Vicksburg.

Hatchie was immediately summoned to receive instructions in relation to their departure.

At the mention of Hatchie’s name, the attorney grew marvellously uneasy, and suddenly recollected that the negro who had conveyed him to the island was waiting for him.  He therefore proposed that Dr. Vaudelier should escort Emily to Vicksburg in the morning, which was readily agreed to, and De Guy made a precipitate retreat, without confronting the mulatto.

CHAPTER XXIII.

“Jaffier.  O, Belvidera! Belvidera.  Why was I last night delivered to a villain? Jaffier.  Ha! a villain? Belvidera.  Yes, to a villain!”

     OTWAY.