hand, the soft, touch of which had gone to his heart and stirred him with old memories, sad and sweet and holy, had dropped away from him, and he seemed to be losing his hold of heaven, God sent him, in Mr. Dinneford, an angel with a stronger hand.  There were old associations that held these men together.  They had been early and attached friends, and this meeting, after many years of separation, under such strange circumstances, and with a common fear and anxiety at heart, could not but have the effect of arousing in the mind of Mr. Dinneford the deepest concern for the unhappy man.  He saw the new peril into which he was thrown by the loss of Andy, and made it his first business to surround him with all possible good and strengthening influences.  So the old memories awakened by the coming of Andy did not fade out and lose their power over the man.  He had taken hold of the good past again, and still held to it with the tight grasp of one conscious of danger.

“We shall find the child—­no fear of that,” Mr. Dinneford would say to him over and over again, trying to comfort his own heart as well, as the days went by and no little Andy could be found.  “The police have the girl under the sharpest surveillance, and she cannot baffle them much longer.”

George Granger left the asylum with his friends, and dropped out of sight.  He did not show himself in the old places nor renew old associations.  He was too deeply hurt.  The disaster had been too great for any attempt on his part at repairing the old dwelling-places of his life.  His was not what we call a strong nature, but he was susceptible of very deep impressions.  He was fine and sensitive, rather than strong.  Rejected by his wife and family without a single interview with her or even an opportunity to assert his innocence, he felt the wrong so deeply that he could not get over it.  His love for his wife had been profound and tender, and when it became known to him that she had accepted the appearances of guilt as conclusive, and broken with her own hands the tie that bound them, it was more than he had strength to bear, and a long time passed before he rallied from this hardest blow of all.

Edith knew that her father had seen Granger after securing his pardon, and she had learned from him only, particulars of the interview.  Beyond this nothing came to her.  She stilled her heart, aching with the old love that crowded all its chambers, and tried to be patient and submissive.  It was very hard.  But she was helpless.  Sometimes, in the anguish and wild agitation of soul that seized her, she would resolve to put in a letter all she thought and felt, and have it conveyed to Granger; but fear and womanly delicacy drove her back from this.  What hope had she that he would not reject her with hatred and scorn?  It was a venture she dared not make, for she felt that such a rejection would kill her.  But for her work among the destitute and the neglected, Edith would have shut herself up at home.  Christian charity drew her forth daily, and in offices of kindness and mercy she found a peace and rest to which she would otherwise have been stranger.