CHAPTER III.
MONTHS elapsed before Edwin Florence ventured again into company.
"Why will you shut yourself up after this fashion ?" said an acquaintance to him one day.

"It isn't just to your friends.

I've heard half a dozen persons asking for you lately.

This hermit life you are leading is, let me tell you, a very foolish life." The friend who thus spoke knew nothing of the young man's heart history.
"No one really misses me," said Florence, in reply.
"In that you are mistaken," returned the friend.

"You are missed.