CHAPTER LX.
The intense anxiety manifested by Lord Meersbrook, when he first went down to Plymouth, did not, in the least, relax when the case became hopeless in the eyes of others, but rather increase, until it became a perfect fever of solicitude, admitting of no relief but that of perpetual action. It was soon partaken by numbers of fishermen, principally, of course, for the hope of reward, on the announcement of intelligence, but, in many cases, from that sincere sympathy man feels for man, when smitten by sorrow, and that peculiar fellowship with each other, experienced by all who gain subsistence on the waters. Perhaps, however, the wives and daughters, to whom he often spoke when rambling on the coast, peering from the headlands and inquiring the route of the fishing-boats, were become more interested in his search than the men: and many a pair of kind, bright eyes, at early dawn and late evening, looked out on the rolling waste of waters for him, when he was no longer there to watch for himself.
