a profound sigh even if have done him injustice she is lost to me now you know appearances were against him why you agreed with me about it i don t want to see any one i want to go away from here and forget my sorrows as best i can in some far distant place there was a sadness in the tone that went to the listener s heart the door was slightly and took the liberty of looking into the room lay stretched out in a great chair and leaned over him appearing for all the world like some sinister bird of prey mr felt for the first time in his life that there was something in the aspect of the book he did not think he could ever be close friends with him again and what did mean by saying that had agreed with him when he heard such base opinions the critic was with apparent satisfaction a pile of that lay on the table it had grown vastly since saw it the last time and must be fifteen or twenty chapters in extent now you must not go away until you have finished this wonderful work replied with concern a few more months a little further experience in life and your reputation will be made ah it is wonderful it is magnificent the world will ring with your praises before the year is ended such fidelity to nature such perfection of detail la a black all my career i have never seen anything to approach it moved uneasily in his chair do you ever think at what cost i have done this he asked i know the pain of a burn because i have held my hands in the fire i know the agony of because i have at the end of a rope i can write of the buried beneath a hundred feet of clay because i have had the load fall on my own head to love and find myself beloved then to see happiness snatched without explanation from my grasp to feel that my best friend has been the one to betray me that is what i have passed through and from the drops of misery thus i have those lines you so much admire i have written all i can of these horrors i will not begin again till i have caught somewhere in the great sky a glimpse of sunlight mr could wait no longer he pushed open the door and went to the speaker s side the sunlight is awaiting you he said gazing down upon the figure in the you have only to raise your curtain mr sprang up in astonishment at the sudden arrival and perhaps a little in alarm also for he could not tell how long the visitor had been at the but turned his languid eyes toward his old friend and was silent my boy pursued with the utmost earnestness i can prove to you now that loves you and you alone our i did not move his lips and the words came stiffly you can promise many things he said but can you any of them so cold so unlike himself what will convince you demanded shall i bring a letter from her or would you rather she came in person to tell you i speak the truth the shadow of a smile a smile that was not agreeable hovered around the corners of the pale mouth i shall write no more said the lips when they opened until i have seen her and heard the reason for my i will discover who my enemy is i will the man or the woman that has done me this injury till then i shall write no more no not one line mr was by the new turn in i he knew that had some basis for what he said that he was not the man to come with pretence on his tongue neither of the other persons in the room paid the least attention to him any more than if he had not been present it was like a play at which was the only spectator could you bear it if i brought her to you to day if i brought her here now asked if i jf an d get her and she comes with me will the shock harm you the smile deepened on the face of the younger play out your farce he said casting one look of apprehension at mr a black turned toward the door that entered the before he could reach it a female form came into the room and caught his arm together they faced the figure in the chair this lasted but a moment then broke from her escort and threw herself at her lover s feet come whispered to the critic let us leave them alone chapter xx like a stuck pi was neither better nor worse morally because his color was black there are men with white who would have done exactly as he did there are others as dark as who would have done nothing of the sort he was no ordinary negro his intelligence was above the average when he first entered the employ of mr that gentleman took every pains to encourage the for learning that he found in him accompanied his employer to his office where he was with important which he seemed for a long time to execute with and at home he performed his duties in a way that gave great satisfaction at the end of the first six months mr would have hated to part with a servant that he believed difficult to replace like a stuck t but the great source of trouble arose gradually began to entertain a sentiment for his master s younger daughter that was impossible of treated him in the most considerate manner never dreaming what was going on behind his serious brow 