It took place in the room adjoining the shop.

Mrs.
Bloundel received the joyful summons from Leonard, and, on descending with her children, found her husband and her son Stephen anxiously expecting her.

Scarcely able to make up her mind as to which of the two she should embrace first, Mrs.Bloundel was decided by the pale countenance of her son, and rushing towards him, she strained him to her breast, while Amabel flew to her father's arms.

The grocer could not repress his tears; but they were tears of joy, and that night's happiness made him ample amends for all the anxiety he had recently undergone.
"Well, Stephen, my dear child," said his mother, as soon as the first tumult of emotion had subsided,--"well, Stephen," she said, smiling at him through her tears, and almost smothering him with kisses, "you are not so much altered as I expected; and I do not think, if I had had the care of you, I could have nursed you better myself.

You owe your father a second life, and we all owe him the deepest gratitude for the care he has taken of you." "I can never be sufficiently grateful for his kindness," returned Stephen, affectionately.
"Give thanks to the beneficent Being who has preserved you from this great danger, my son, not to me," returned Bloundel.