As soon as circumstances permitted, I repeated to Mr. Dalton the conversation Robert had held with me a short time before his death.  Among other things I gave him his watch which he had entrusted to my care.  He pressed me to keep the watch, saying, “From the frequent mention my son made of you in his letters, I almost feel that I know you well, and knowing the strong friendship he entertained for you, I beg of you to accept of his watch for his sake as well as mine, and should we never meet again, bear in mind that I shall ever remember you with gratitude and affection.”  It was a small but elegant gold watch which to Robert had been a birthday gift from an uncle who was very fond of him, and to this day it is to me a valued keepsake.

When Mr. Dalton left the city, bearing with him the lifeless remains of his son, for interment in the family burial-place, a deep gloom settled over my mind, and for a long time, I could hardly rouse myself to give the necessary attention to my daily duties.  Since that period I have made other friends and passed through many changing scenes, both of joy and sorrow; but I have never forgotten Robert Dalton, and his image often rises to my mental vision, as memory recalls the scenes and friends of my youthful days.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

With the reader’s permission I now pass over a period of six years.  I am still residing in the city of Montreal, as Mr. Baynard, when I reached the age of twenty-one, saw fit to offer me a partnership in his business, which the fruits of my former industry, added to a generous gift from my Uncle Nathan, enabled me to accept.  Many changes have taken place in my early home in the village of Elmwood.  Many old friends and neighbors have been laid to rest in the quiet churchyard, and many with whom I attended the village school have gone forth from their paternal home to seek their fortune in the wide world.  The cottage home of my mother has undergone many improvements since we last looked upon it.  It has been enlarged and modernized in various ways, and its walls are no longer a dingy brown, but of a pure white, and its windows are adorned with tasteful green blinds.  From a boy it had been my earnest wish to see my mother placed in a home of ease and comfort, and that wish is now gratified.  Time has not dealt severely with my mother, for she looks scarcely a day older than when we last saw her six years ago.  My sister Flora is finishing her education at a distant boarding school, where I am happy to say my brotherly affection and generosity placed her.  Good Doctor Gray and his kind wife are still alive; but they are really beginning to grow old.  But what of Charley, for surely the reader has not forgotten Charley Gray; he graduated from College with the highest honors, and is now studying medicine in the city of New York, as, agreeable to the ideas of his boyhood, he has decided upon becoming a physician.  I have met with him only twice during the past six years.  Does his old unhappy disposition cling to him still? we shall learn that bye and bye.