in the proceeds to the account of an unknown person at one of the large london banks the person was by some supposed to be himself under an assumed name but few if any had certain knowledge of that ct the el ant new residence was sold with the rest of his possessions and its was no other than now a man in the and one whose growing family and new wife required more accommodation than was afforded by the little house up the narrow side street s old habitation was bought by the of the body in that town who pulled down the time honoured dwelling and built a new chapel on its site by the time the last hour of that to year had every of him had disappeared from the of his native place and the name became extinct in the of port after having been fi living therein for more than two hundred year � ix one years and six months do not pass setting a mark even upon stone and triple brass upon humanity such a period works nothing less than in s old young children with bones like india rubber had grown up to be stable men and women men and women had dried in the skin withered and sunk into while from every class had been consigned to the of differences the greatest was that a railway had invaded the town tying it on to a main line at a a dozen miles off s house on the harbour road once so new had acquired a respectable with ivy virginia damp patches and even constitutional of its own like its elder fellows its architecture once so very improved and modern had already become stale in style without having reached the dignity of being old fashioned trees about the harbour road had increased in or disappeared under the saw while the church had had such a tremendous practical joke played upon it by some or other as to be scarce by its dearest old friends during this long interval george had never once t een seen or heard of in the town of his z o fellow it was the evening of a market day and some middle aged farmers and were lounging round the bar of the black hotel occasionally dropping a remark to each other and less frequently to the two who stood within the counter in a attitude of attention these latter sighing and making a private observation to one another at odd intervals on more interesting experiences than the present days get shorter said one of the as he looked towards the street and noticed that the was passing by the farmers merely acknowledged by their countenances the propriety of this remark and finding that nobody else spoke one of the said yes in a tone of painful duty come fair day we shall have to light up before we start for home along that s true his neighbour with a gaze of and after that we shan t see much further difference all s winter the rest were not unwilling to go even so far as this the sighed again and raised one of her hands from the counter on which they rested to scratch the smallest surface of her face with the smallest of her fingers she looked towards the door and presently remarked i think i hear the coming in from station the eyes of the and farmers turned to the glass door dividing the hall from the porch and in a minute or two the drew up outside then there was a down of luggage and then a man came into the hall followed by a porter with a on his which he deposited on a bench the stranger was an elderly with curly z l tales white hair a deeply outer comer to each and a countenance baked by innumerable to the colour of its hue and that of his hair like heat and cold he walked and gently like one who was of disturbing his own mental but whatever lay at the bottom of his breast had evidently made him so accustomed to its situation there that it caused him little practical inconvenience he paused in silence while with his eyes fixed on the he seemed to consider himself in a moment or two he addressed them and asked to be for the night as he waited he looked curiously round the hall but said nothing as soon as invited he disappeared up the staircase preceded by a and candle and followed by a lad with his trunk not a soul had recognized him a quarter of an hour later when the farmers and had driven off to their in the country he came downstairs took a and one glass of wine and walked out into the town where the radiance from the shop windows had grown so in volume of late years as to flood with cheerfulness every standing cart stall and that occupied the whether shabby or genteel his chief interest at present seemed to lie in the names painted over the shop fronts and on door ways as far as they were visible these now differed to an ominous extent from what they had been one and twenty years before the traveller passed on till he came to the s where he looked in through the glass door a fresh faced young man was standing behind the counter otherwise the shop was empty the gray haired observer entered asked for some by way of paying for admission and with his elbow on the counter began to turn over the pages he had bought though that he read nothing was obvious i a fellow at length he said is old mr still alive in a voice which had a curious youthful in it even now my father is dead sir said the young man ah i am sorry to hear it said 