Bywater's Dance                 529

strength to walk alone. A tall, thin, white-faced boy,
with great eyes and 'no hair, and a red handkerchief
tied over his head to hide the deficiency; but a beauti-
ful boy in spite of all, for he bore a strange resemblance
to Charles Channing.
  Was it Charles  Or was it his shadow; My lady
turned again to the hall, startling the house with her
cries, that Charley's ghost had come, and bringing
forth its immates in alarmed consternation.



                 CHAPTER LVIII
                 BY 'WATER'S DANCE
  NoT Charley 's shadow-not Charley 's ghost-but
Charley himself, in real flesh and blood. One knew
him, if the rest did not; and that wvas Judith. She
seized upon him with solbs and cries, and sat down on
the hall bench and hugged him to her. But Charley
had seen some one else, and he slipped from Judith to
the arms that were held out to shelter him, his warm
tears breaking forth. " Mamma ! mamma !"
  Mrs. Channing's tears fell fast as she received him.-
She strained him to her bosom, and held him there;
and they had to hold her, for her emotion was great.
It is of no use endeavouring to describe this sort of
meeting. When the loved who have been thought dead,
are restored to life, all description must fall short of
reality, if it does not utterly fail. Charley, whom they
had mourned as lost, was with them again: traces of
sickness, of suffering, were in his face, in his attenuate
form; but still he was in life. You must imagine what
it was, AIr. and Mrs. Channing, Lady Augusta, Con-
stance, the servants, and the Bishop of Helstonleigh-
for no less a personage than that distinguished prelate
had been the visitor to Mr. Channing, come to con-
gratulate him on his cure and his return.
  The woman who had accompanied Charley stood
apart-a hard-featured woman, in a clean cotton gown,
and clean brown apron, whose face proclaimed that she
lived much in the open air. Perhaps she lived so much
in it as to disdain bonnets, for she wore none-a red