“What! thou art not jesting? can the dead come to life?

God be praised if it be so! Our poor lost boy restored to our arms after all these cruel years! Ah, it seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true — I charge thee, have pity, do not trifle with me! Quick — come to the light — let me scan thee well!”

He seized Miles by the arm, dragged him to the window, and began to devour him from head to foot with his eyes, turning him this way and that, and stepping briskly around him and about him to prove him from all points of view; whilst the returned prodigal, all aglow with gladness, smiled, laughed, and kept nodding his head and saying —

“Go on, brother, go on, and fear not; thou’lt find nor limb nor feature that cannot bide the test.