The room returned to me, I saw Jimmy clearly, I felt Marriot overhead, and I heard them all whispering.

Still I puffed; I knew that my pipe was empty, but still I puffed.

Gilray's fingers tried to draw my brier from my mouth, but I bit into it with my teeth, and still I puffed.
When I came to I was alone.

I had a dim consciousness of having been shaken by several hands, of a voice that I think was Scrymgeour's saying that he would often write to me--though my new home was to be within the four-mile radius--and of another voice that I think was Jimmy's, telling Marriot not to let me see him breaking down.

But though I had ceased to puff, my brier was still in my mouth; and, indeed, I found it there when William John shook me into life next morning.
[Illustration] My parting with William John was almost sadder than the scene of the previous night.