"I am too late," he said; "the funeral is over. I meant to have attended it, and seen the last of the poor fellow."
"Thank you, Sir," replied Elizabeth, gratefully.
The young man stood before her, looking at her earnestly for a minute or two, and then exclaimed, with a complete change of voice and manner.
"Elizabeth, don't you know me? What has become of my aunt Johanna?"
It was Ascott Leaf.
But no wonder Elizabeth had not recognized him. His close cropped hair, his large beard hiding half his face, and a pair of spectacles which he had assumed, were a sufficient disguise. Besides, the great change from his former "dandy" appearance to the extreme of shabbiness; his clothes being evidently worn as long as they could possibly hold together, and his generally depressed air, giving the effect of one who had gone down in the world, made him, even without the misleading "John Smith," most unlikely to be identified with the Ascott Leaf of old.
"I never should have known you, Sir!" said Elizabeth truthfully, when her astonishment had a little subsided; "but I am very glad to see you. Oh how thankful your aunts will be!"
"Do you think so? I thought it was quite the contrary. But it does not matter; they will never hear of me unless you tell them—and I believe I may trust you. You would not betray me, if only for the sake of that poor fellow yonder?"
"No, Sir."
"Now, tell me something about my aunts, especially my aunt Johanna."