The aged-looking man in the chair opposite, now roused himself from a volume on which he had been hitherto intent, not to greet his invited guest, but (without looking up) to stroke re-assuringly, the large head of the animal, which, as if in surprised inquiry, had risen, and gazed into its master's face. The dog then again crouching down, Sir Richard leaned back, and looked up slowly and scrutinizingly into the face of the youth he had summoned before him. Eustace, impressed with the oddity of such a proceeding and situation, was not abashed; although his own skill as a physiognomist was puzzled by the complex, singular face, which now contemplated him. The eyes were large, deep set, and mournful; the cavities around them were deeper than even the more than three-score years of their possessor might justify. The brows above them were still dark, presenting a singular, but not unpleasing contrast to the perfectly white hair, which was not thinned by age, but fell almost to the shoulders; but the frown into which these brows were knitted, producing many a furrow on the broad forehead, ponderously overclouded any notion of gentleness which the eyes alone might seem to argue. The cheeks were very thin and sallow, while the expression of the mouth was rendered uncertain by the long beard which, in silence, concealed it. The nose was aquiline and haughty; its powerful outline might have been supposed to denominate an

ambition singularly unfulfilled in the dreary existence of this recluse.

Taken altogether, the face was painful; originally it might have been very handsome, but the emaciation, and the many lines by which it was crossed and recrossed, hinted some destiny which had marred the qualities, that, separately, still struggled for utterance there.

By what unsanctified furnace has this man been seared and scathed ?" thought Eustace; and then he was reminded that this mute and mutual investigation was over, by Sir Richard quietly folding his arms across his chest, (thus wrapping himself still more completely in the folds of the dark, loose garment which enveloped him) and asking, as if in continuation of a train of thought:

"Did you, when careless of life, know that it was Beatrice Lester for whom you risked it ?"

Eustace answered, "No."

The tone of the misanthrope's voice was not, at first, repulsive. Melancholy and deep, it seemed to harmonize with the character of the eyes when in repose; but gradually it changed in the ensuing conversation, becoming higher and discordant, while his whole face assumed a sinister expression, strangely alternating, however, with one of fatigue or weariness.

"Whom did you imagine then," he continued, "could be within these grounds ?"

Eustace. "The common impulse of humanity left me no time for reflection.”

Sir Richard. "Acting then on what you call 'a common impulse,' but which I deny as common, would you have been equally reckless to save one of your own sex, or a woman or child of the lowest rank ?"

Eustace. "Undoubtedly."

Sir Richard. "You take credit to yourself, then, if this be true, for the benevolence of your nature ?"

Eustace. "Far from it; an impulse being in its nature, sudden and unpremeditated, deserves no credit; and even benevolence, though admitting selfculture, must first be implanted by a higher hand; teaching us, therefore, humility, as recipient, before we can become the giver."

Sir Richard. "Your language, boy, savours of the pulpit or the school. Is your father a parson, or a pedagogue ?"

Eustace (with emotion). "My father was an artist-he is now dead."

Sir Richard (sarcastically). "Then you have been in the leading-strings of a woman ?"

Eustace. "Of my mother." (With glowing cheek and manly pride).

Here the young man was about to leave the room and its eccentric inhabitant; but before he could effect the haughty. exit for which he was pre

pared, and for which he surely could not be blamed, Sir Richard rejoined, as if not observing his intention

"Of your mother-ah, yes; and, doubtless, if she be indeed a female paragon, she has taught you, second-hand, the tenets of a favourite parson."

"Sir!" exclaimed Mr. Neville, advancing a step towards him, "Sir! Your questions surprise me, and would pain, if they did not offend; but the words you have just uttered may be accepted-and literally.

"Aha! you take me, en rigueur, do you young man ?" interposed Sir Richard with a low laugh which grated harshly on his listener's ear; and then, dropping down into an attitude of grim attention, with one hand to his ear, but with a strange mocking spirit about his mouth, at variance with his deep set melancholy eyes, "you are bold, too, for a home-bred lad, but you may proceed in your literal translation."

Merely to shew, then," answered Eustace, with an enthusiasm which dissipated his previous sternness, "that a good woman may be blessed in learning the Gospel from its appointed teacher, and be enabled, practically, to demonstrate its tenets to her child, and illustrate its truths even beyond her own roof." Sir Richard answered in a low, questioning tone, as if forgetful, for the moment, of another's pre

sence:

"Ah! women like this sort of thing; their pruriency of imagination they take as the inward prompting of a mission; the glibness of their tongues, as the sign of a vocation; anything, in short, better than to obey in the shade." Then, suddenly rousing himself, he asked:

"Was your father famous ?"

Eustace. "In his profession-yes."

Sir Richard. "Then, I suppose, your mother seemed to adopt him and his career with enthusiasm ?" Then, not waiting for an answer, nor noticing the flushed cheek before him, he continued, half in soliloquy :

"An unreflected light did never yet

Dazzle the vision feminine."

"Ugh-that's true-true," and again, with the sardonic laugh, he added:

"Wit, too, and wisdom that's admired by all.
They can admire the glory, not the thing."

Eustace fancied, at this moment, that the quotation gave him a clue to the debased opinions of this evidently unhappy man; his kind heart, pitying trouble under every form, and deploring its unsanctified effects, immediately forgave the previous insult, and he answered in a gentle tone,