We continued our walk, but I was not able to throw any gleam of light upon that original question of his.

I could not remember ever having seen Dr.Holmes's dedication.

I knew the poems, but the dedication was new to me.
I did not get hold of the key to that secret until months afterward, then it came in a curious way, and yet it was a natural way; for the natural way provided by nature and the construction of the human mind for the discovery of a forgotten event is to employ another forgotten event for its resurrection.
[Sidenote: (1866.)] I received a letter from the Rev.Dr.Rising, who had been rector of the Episcopal church in Virginia City in my time, in which letter Dr.Rising made reference to certain things which had happened to us in the Sandwich Islands six years before; among things he made casual mention of the Honolulu Hotel's poverty in the matter of literature.

At first I did not see the bearing of the remark, it called nothing to my mind.

But presently it did--with a flash! There was but one book in Mr.Kirchhof's hotel, and that was the first volume of Dr.Holmes's blue and gold series.