He adored children, and it was on them that
some of his most conspicuous miracles were performed. Many a time when a
child had fallen and hurt itself, was he known to make the place well by
simply kissing it. Nor need I recall to your minds the spotless purity
of his life--so spotless that not one breath of slander has ever dared to
visit it. I was one of the not very many who had the privilege of being
admitted to the inner circle of his friends during the later weeks that
he was amongst us. I loved him dearly, and it will ever be the proudest
recollection of my life that he deigned to return me no small measure of
affection."
My father, furious as he was at finding himself dragged into complicity
with this man's imposture, could not resist a smile at the effrontery
with which he lowered his tone here, and appeared unwilling to dwell on
an incident which he could not recall without being affected almost to
tears, and mere allusion to which, had involved an apparent self-display
that was above all things repugnant to him. What a difference between
the Hanky of Thursday evening with its "never set eyes on him and hope I
never shall," and the Hanky of Sunday morning, who now looked as modest
as Cleopatra might have done had she been standing godmother to a little
blue-eyed girl--Bellerophon's first-born baby.
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