overruling Providence, she thought she now saw clearly the hand of a
superior Power in the occurrences which had compelled Holden, in
the first instance, to take up his temporary residence among them.
Temporary residence, we say, because the Solitary had since returned
to his hut, which was at the distance of only two or three miles from
the cabins of his former protectors. Solitude he found was necessary
in order to enable him the better to perform his new duties, and the
distance was too slight to interpose any serious obstacle, or even
inconvenience.

Such was the state of things, when some weeks after the freshet, Mr.
Armstrong acquainted his daughter, at the breakfast-table, with his
intention to visit Holden that day.

"It is a long time," he said (four days had elapsed), "since we have
seen him, and there are things upon my mind I would gladly speak
about."

A few months before, such a declaration from her father would have
suprised Faith, but now she regarded it as quite natural. The intimacy
between the family and the Recluse had become such, and the commanding
character of the latter had acquired so great an influence over
both its members, that neither of them saw anything strange in the
deference paid him. She, therefore, acquiesced with some common-place
remark in the proposal, begging to be remembered to the old man.

Accordingly, after breakfast, Mr. Armstrong walked down to the wharf,
thinking it probable he might find some boat going down the river, by
which he might be left at the island, intending, should he not
find the Solitary there, to go to the Indian settlement. Nor was he