“Well, what mother could be just to a lunatic, with her own sweet angel babes to provide for?”

“That is true,” said Dr. ——.  “Maternal love is apt to modify the conscience.”

“What I would do,—­I would take her address, and make her promise to write if he gets well, and if he does get well then write to him, and tell him all about it.”

Dr. ——­ acted on this shrewd advice, and ordered a bundle to be made up for the traveller out of the hospital stores:  it contained a nice light summer suit and two changes of linen.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Next morning, Staines and Dick Dale walked through the streets of Cape Town side by side.  Dick felt the uneasiness of a sane man, not familiar with the mentally afflicted, who suddenly finds himself alone with one.  Insanity turns men oftenest into sheep and hares; but it does now and then make them wolves and tigers; and that has saddled the insane in general with a character for ferocity.  Young Dale, then, cast many a suspicious glance at his comrade, as he took him along.  These glances were reassuring:  Christopher’s face had no longer the mobility, the expressive changes, that mark the superior mind; his countenance was monotonous:  but the one expression was engaging; there was a sweet, patient, lamb-like look:  the glorious eye a little troubled and perplexed, but wonderfully mild.  Dick Dale looked and looked, and his uneasiness vanished.  And the more he looked, the more did a certain wonder creep over him, and make him scarce believe the thing he knew; viz., that a learned doctor had saved him from the jaws of death by rare knowledge, sagacity, courage, and skill combined:  and that mighty man of wisdom was brought down to this lamb, and would go north, south, east, or west, with sweet and perfect submission, even as he, Dick Dale, should appoint.  With these reflections honest Dick felt his eyes get a little misty, and, to use those words of Scripture, which nothing can surpass or equal, his bowels yearned over the man.

As for Christopher, he looked straight forward, and said not a word till they cleared the town; but when he saw the vast flowery vale, and the far-off violet hills, like Scotland glorified, he turned to Dick with an ineffable expression of sweetness and good fellowship, and said, “Oh, beautiful!  We’ll hunt the past together.”

“We—­will—­so,” said Dick, with a sturdy and indeed almost a stern resolution.

Now, this he said, not that he cared for the past, nor intended to waste the present by going upon its predecessor’s trail; but he had come to a resolution—­full three minutes ago—­to humor his companion to the top of his bent, and say “Yes” with hypocritical vigor to everything not directly and immediately destructive to him and his.