"Forgiven you?" repeated Harry. "I did not know he had anything to forgive you. But here is his own letter; it will, no doubt, tell you all you wish to know. But ere you read it, I must tell you what I know—"
"About a year ago our ship touched at Sydney, and the captain told us he would be detained there on business several weeks. On hearing that, I resolved I would regularly attend at the hospitals there, and so keep up my medical knowledge of general cases, which I had very limited opportunity of doing on board ship. Passing through the wards one day, my attention was arrested by the face of a young lad which I seemed to know, and yet was unable to tell to whom it belonged. I approached the bed, and asked him some medical questions, when it was plain that the lad knew me also, but did not wish me to recognize him; for as he spoke, a deep flush suffused his face, and he turned his back to me, muttering something about the light. But the moment I heard his voice, I knew it was Lewis Warner that lay there."
"My boy! My loved boy!" exclaimed Dr. Warner.
Whilst both Prissy and Austin cried out in dismay, "Lewis lying ill in a hospital alone in a foreign land!"
"He is all right now," continued Harry. "But let me finish my story. I had heard from my father all about poor Lewis, and I at once addressed him by name, saying kindly, 'I am grieved to see you here, and looking so ill also. Do your friends know of your illness, and that you are here?'"
"The answer was given in a hard, hoarse way: 'My friends! I have none. I am called William Smith; don't you see my name there?' and he pointed to a letter lying on the table beside him."
"I took his hand and said firmly, 'Lewis, there is no use in trying to deceive me. I know you; and the moment you saw me, you recognized your old friend Harry Lascelles. By the memory of your mother now in glory, whom we both loved so clearly, speak to me frankly, Lewis, and tell me all—why you left your home, and how you come to be here.'"
"For one moment he made an effort to repulse me; then, poor follow, he broke down, and sobbed like a child, crying every now and then, 'O father! Father! If only he would forgive me!'"
"Poor boy, poor suffering boy!" said Dr. Warner. "And you told him, surely, Harry, you told him I had forgiven him long ago?"
"I did, doctor; and more than that. I told him how his heavenly Father, against whom he had sinned so grievously, was wanting to forgive him also, for Christ's sake. I left him much softened; and the eager way in which he sought news of you all, showed how his heart clung to his home and to the dear ones there. He had owed much to a kindhearted man of the name of Barton, whom I afterwards saw, and who told me that Lewis had been the means of saving him from ruin, by preventing him from entering a gambling-room in Sydney a couple of years before. He and Lewis had become acquainted with each other shortly before then; and Barton, having a little money in his pocket, was just going to try his luck at cards, and invited Lewis to join him, when the lad, who called himself William Smith, laid his hand on his arm and implored him not to enter the gambling-saloon, telling him it might prove his ruin if he did so."