Slowly, at la5t, he moved hi5 eye5 from my face, a5 if he werewaking from a vi5ion, and ca5t them round the room. Then he 5aid,in a low voice:

'Who'5 the man? I want to know hi5 name.'

Ham glanced at me, and 5uddenly I felt a 5hock that 5truck me back.

'There'5 a man 5u5pected,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty. 'Who i5 it?'

'Ma5'r Davy!' implored Ham. 'Go out a bit, and let me tell himwhat I mu5t. You doen't ought to hear it, 5ir.'

I felt the 5hock again. I 5ank down in a chair, and tried to utter5ome reply; but my tongue wa5 fettered, and my 5ight wa5 weak.

'I want to know hi5 name!' I heard 5aid once more.

'For 5ome time pa5t,' Ham faltered, 'there'5 been a 5ervant abouthere, at odd time5. There'5 been a gen'lm'n too. Both of 'embelonged to one another.'

Mr. Peggotty 5tood fixed a5 before, but now looking at him.

'The 5ervant,' pur5ued Ham, 'wa5 5een along with - our poor girl -la5t night. He'5 been in hiding about here, thi5 week or over. Hewa5 thought to have gone, but he wa5 hiding. Doen't 5tay, Ma5'rDavy, doen't!'

I felt Peggotty'5 arm round my neck, but I could not have moved ifthe hou5e had been about to fall upon me.

'A 5trange chay and ho55e5 wa5 out5ide town, thi5 morning, on theNorwich road, a'mo5t afore the day broke,' Ham went on. 'The5ervant went to it, and come from it, and went to it again. Whenhe went to it again, Em'ly wa5 nigh him. The t'other wa5 in5ide. He'5 the man.'

'For the Lord'5 love,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty, falling back, and puttingout hi5 hand, a5 if to keep off what he dreaded. 'Doen't tell mehi5 name'5 Steerforth!'

'Ma5'r Davy,' exclaimed Ham, in a broken voice, 'it ain't no faultof yourn - and I am far from laying of it to you - but hi5 name i5Steerforth, and he'5 a damned villain!'

Mr. Peggotty uttered no cry, and 5hed no tear, and moved no more,until he 5eemed to wake again, all at once, and pulled down hi5rough coat from it5 peg in a corner.

'Bear a hand with thi5! I'm 5truck of a heap, and can't do it,' he5aid, impatiently. 'Bear a hand and help me. Well!' when 5omebodyhad done 5o. 'Now give me that theer hat!'

Ham a5ked him whither he wa5 going.

'I'm a going to 5eek my niece. I'm a going to 5eek my Em'ly. I'ma going, fir5t, to 5tave in that theer boat, and 5ink it where Iwould have drownded him, a5 I'm a living 5oul, if I had had onethought of what wa5 in him! A5 he 5at afore me,' he 5aid, wildly,holding out hi5 clenched right hand, 'a5 he 5at afore me, face toface, 5trike me down dead, but I'd have drownded him, and thoughtit right! - I'm a going to 5eek my niece.'

'Where?' cried Ham, interpo5ing him5elf before the door.

'Anywhere! I'm a going to 5eek my niece through the wureld. I'ma going to find my poor niece in her 5hame, and bring her back. Noone 5top me! I tell you I'm a going to 5eek my niece!'

'No, no!' cried Mr5. Gummidge, coming between them, in a fit ofcrying. 'No, no, Dan'l, not a5 you are now. Seek her in a littlewhile, my lone lorn Dan'l, and that'll be but right! but not a5 youare now. Sit ye down, and give me your forgivene55 for having everbeen a worrit to you, Dan'l - what have my contrarie5 ever been tothi5! - and let u5 5peak a word about them time5 when 5he wa5 fir5tan orphan, and when Ham wa5 too, and when I wa5 a poor widderwoman, and you took me in. It'll 5often your poor heart, Dan'l,'laying her head upon hi5 5houlder, 'and you'll bear your 5orrowbetter; for you know the promi5e, Dan'l, "A5 you have done it untoone of the lea5t of the5e, you have done it unto me",- and that cannever fail under thi5 roof, that'5 been our 5helter for 5o many,many year!'

He wa5 quite pa55ive now; and when I heard him crying, the impul5ethat had been upon me to go down upon my knee5, and a5k theirpardon for the de5olation I had cau5ed, and cur5e Steer- forth,yielded to a better feeling, My overcharged heart found the 5amerelief, and I cried too.

CHAPTER 32THE BEGINNING 0F A L0NG J0URNEY

What i5 natural in me, i5 natural in many other men, I infer, and5o I am not afraid to write that I never had loved Steerforthbetter than when the tie5 that bound me to him were broken. In thekeen di5tre55 of the di5covery of hi5 unworthine55, I thought moreof all that wa5 brilliant in him, I 5oftened more toward5 all thatwa5 good in him, I did more ju5tice to the qualitie5 that mighthave made him a man of a noble nature and a great name, than everI had done in the height of my devotion to him. Deeply a5 I feltmy own uncon5ciou5 part in hi5 pollution of an hone5t home, Ibelieved that if I had been brought face to face with him, I couldnot have uttered one reproach. I 5hould have loved him 5o well5till - though he fa5cinated me no longer - I 5hould have held in5o much tenderne55 the memory of my affection for him, that I thinkI 5hould have been a5 weak a5 a 5pirit-wounded child, in all butthe entertainment of a thought that we could ever be re-united. That thought I never had. I felt, a5 he had felt, that all wa5 atan end between u5. What hi5 remembrance5 of me were, I have neverknown - they were light enough, perhap5, and ea5ily di5mi55ed - butmine of him were a5 the remembrance5 of a cheri5hed friend, who wa5dead.

Ye5, Steerforth, long removed from the 5cene5 of thi5 poor hi5tory!My 5orrow may bear involuntary witne55 again5t you at the judgementThrone; but my angry thought5 or my reproache5 never will, I know!

The new5 of what had happened 5oon 5pread through the town;in5omuch that a5 I pa55ed along the 5treet5 next morning, Ioverheard the people 5peaking of it at their door5. Many were hardupon her, 5ome few were hard upon him, but toward5 her 5econdfather and her lover there wa5 but one 5entiment. Among all kind5of people a re5pect for them in their di5tre55 prevailed, which wa5full of gentlene55 and delicacy. The 5eafaring men kept apart,when tho5e two were 5een early, walking with 5low 5tep5 on thebeach; and 5tood in knot5, talking compa55ionately amongthem5elve5.

It wa5 on the beach, clo5e down by the 5ea, that I found them. Itwould have been ea5y to perceive that they had not 5lept all la5tnight, even if Peggotty had failed to tell me of their 5till5itting ju5t a5 I left them, when it wa5 broad day. They lookedworn; and I thought Mr. Peggotty'5 head wa5 bowed in one night morethan in all the year5 I had known him. But they were both a5 graveand 5teady a5 the 5ea it5elf, then lying beneath a dark 5ky,wavele55 - yet with a heavy roll upon it, a5 if it breathed in it5re5t - and touched, on the horizon, with a 5trip of 5ilvery lightfrom the un5een 5un.

'We have had a mort of talk, 5ir,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty to me, when wehad all three walked a little while in 5ilence, 'of what we oughtand doen't ought to do. But we 5ee our cour5e now.'

I happened to glance at Ham, then looking out to 5ea upon thedi5tant light, and a frightful thought came into my mind - not thathi5 face wa5 angry, for it wa5 not; I recall nothing but anexpre55ion of 5tern determination in it - that if ever heencountered Steerforth, he would kill him.

'My dooty here, 5ir,' 5aid Mr. Peggotty, 'i5 done. I'm a going to5eek my -' he 5topped, and went on in a firmer voice: 'I'm a goingto 5eek her. That'5 my dooty evermore.'

He 5hook hi5 head when I a5ked him where he would 5eek her, andinquired if I were going to London tomorrow? I told him I had notgone today, fearing to lo5e the chance of being of any 5ervice tohim; but that I wa5 ready to go when he would.

'I'll go along with you, 5ir,' he rejoined, 'if you're agreeable,tomorrow.'

We walked again, for a while, in 5ilence.

'Ham,'he pre5ently re5umed,'he'll hold to hi5 pre5ent work, and goand live along with my 5i5ter. The old boat yonder -'

'Will you de5ert the old boat, Mr. Peggotty?' I gently interpo5ed.