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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Caxtons, by Bulwer-Lytton, Part 5
+#19 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
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+*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
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+
+Title: The Caxtons, Part 5
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: February 2005  [EBook #7590]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 1, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 5 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Pat Castevens
+and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+In setting off the next morning, the Boots, whose heart I had won by an
+extra sixpence for calling me betimes, good-naturedly informed me that I
+might save a mile of the journey, and have a very pleasant walk into the
+bargain, if I took the footpath through a gentleman's park, the lodge of
+which I should see about seven miles from the town.
+
+"And the grounds are showed too," said the Boots, "if so be you has a
+mind to stay and see 'em.  But don't you go to the gardener,--he'll want
+half a crown; there's an old 'Oman at the lodge who will show you all
+that's worth seeing--the walks and the big cascade--for a tizzy.  You
+may make use of my name," he added proudly,--"Bob, boots at the 'Lion.'
+She be a haunt o' mine, and she minds them that come from me
+perticklerly."
+
+Not doubting that the purest philanthropy actuated these counsels, I
+thanked my shock-headed friend, and asked carelessly to whom the park
+belonged.
+
+"To Muster Trevanion, the great parliament man," answered the Boots.
+"You has heard o' him, I guess, sir?"
+
+I shook my head, surprised every hour more and more to find how very
+little there was in it.
+
+"They takes in the 'Moderate Man's Journal' at the 'Lamb:' and they say
+in the tap there that he's one of the cleverest chaps in the House o'
+Commons," continued the Boots, in a confidential whisper.  "But we takes
+in the 'People's Thunderbolt' at the 'Lion,' and we knows better this
+Muster Trevanion: he is but a trimmer,--milk and water,--no horator,--
+not the right sort; you understand?"  Perfectly satisfied that I
+understood nothing about it, I smiled, and said, "Oh, yes!" and slipping
+on my knapsack, commenced my adventures, the Boots bawling after me,
+"Mind, sir, you tells haunt I sent you!"
+
+The town was only languidly putting forth symptoms of returning life as
+I strode through the streets; a pale, sickly, unwholesome look on the
+face of the slothful Phoebus had succeeded the feverish hectic of the
+past night; the artisans whom I met glided by me haggard and dejected; a
+few early shops were alone open; one or two drunken men, emerging from
+the lanes, sallied homeward with broken pipes in their mouths; bills,
+with large capitals, calling attention to "Best family teas at 4s. a
+pound;" "The arrival of Mr. Sloinan's caravan of wild beasts;" and Dr.
+Do'em's "Paracelsian Pills of Immortality," stared out dull and
+uncheering from the walls of tenantless, dilapidated houses in that
+chill sunrise which favors no illusion.  I was glad when I had left the
+town behind me, and saw the reapers in the corn-fields, and heard the
+chirp of the birds.  I arrived at the lodge of which the Boots had
+spoken,--a pretty rustic building half-concealed by a belt of
+plantations, with two large iron gates for the owner's friends, and a
+small turn-stile for the public, who, by some strange neglect on his
+part, or sad want of interest with the neighboring magistrates, had
+still preserved a right to cross the rich man's domains and look on his
+grandeur, limited to compliance with a reasonable request, mildly stated
+on the notice-board, "to keep to the paths."  As it was not yet eight
+o'clock, I had plenty of time before me to see the grounds; and
+profiting by the economical hint of the Boots, I entered the lodge and
+inquired for the old lady who was haunt to Mr. Bob.  A young woman, who
+was busied in preparing breakfast, nodded with great civility to this
+request, and hastening to a bundle of clothes which I then perceived in
+the corner, she cried, "Grandmother, here's a gentleman to see the
+cascade."
+
+The bundle of clothes then turned round and exhibited a human
+countenance, which lighted up with great intelligence as the
+granddaughter, turning to me, said with simplicity.  "She's old, honest
+cretur, but she still likes to earn a sixpence, sir;" and taking a
+crutch-staff in her hand, while her granddaughter put a neat bonnet on
+her head, this industrious gentlewoman sallied out at a pace which
+surprised me.
+
+I attempted to enter into conversation with my guide; but she did not
+seem much inclined to be sociable, and the beauty of the glades and
+groves which now spread before my eyes reconciled me to silence.
+
+I have seen many fine places since then, but I do not remember to have
+seen a landscape more beautiful in its peculiar English character than
+that which I now gazed on.  It had none of the feudal characteristics of
+ancient parks, with giant oaks, fantastic pollards, glens covered with
+fern, and deer grouped upon the slopes; on the contrary, in spite of
+some fine trees, chiefly beech, the impression conveyed was, that it was
+a new place,--a made place.  You might see ridges on the lawns which
+showed where hedges had been removed; the pastures were parcelled out in
+divisions by new wire fences; young plantations, planned with exquisite
+taste, but without the venerable formality of avenues and quin-cunxes,
+by which you know the parks that date from Elizabeth and James,
+diversified the rich extent of verdure; instead of deer, were short-
+horned cattle of the finest breed, sheep that would have won the prize
+at an agricultural show.  Everywhere there was the evidence of
+improvement, energy, capital, but capital clearly not employed for the
+mere purpose of return.  The ornamental was too conspicuously
+predominant amidst the lucrative not to say eloquently: "The owner is
+willing to make the most of his land, but not the most of his money."
+
+But the old woman's eagerness to earn sixpence had impressed me
+unfavorably as to the character of the master.  "Here," thought I, "are
+all the signs of riches; and yet this poor old woman, living on the very
+threshold of opulence, is in want of a sixpence."
+
+These surmises, in the indulgence of which I piqued myself on my
+penetration, were strengthened into convictions by the few sentences
+which I succeeded at last in eliciting from the old woman.
+
+"Mr. Trevanion must be a rich man?" said I.  "Oh, ay, rich eno'!"
+grumbled my guide.
+
+"And," said I, surveying the extent of shrubbery or dressed ground
+through which our way wound, now emerging into lawns and glades, now
+belted by rare garden-trees, now (as every inequality of the ground was
+turned to advantage in the landscape) sinking into the dell, now
+climbing up the slopes, and now confining the view to some object of
+graceful art or enchanting Nature,--"and," said I, "he must employ many
+hands here: plenty of work, eh?"
+
+"Ay, ay! I don't say that he don't find work for those who want it.  But
+it ain't the same place it wor in my day."
+
+"You remember it in other hands, then?"
+
+"Ay, ay!  When the Hogtons had it, honest folk!  My good man was the
+gardener,--none of those set-Lip fine gentlemen who can't put hand to a
+spade."
+
+Poor faithful old woman!
+
+I began to hate the unknown proprietor.  Here clearly was some mushroom
+usurper who had bought out the old simple, hospitable family, neglected
+its ancient servants, left them to earn tizzies by showing waterfalls,
+and insulted their eyes by his selfish wealth.
+
+"There's the water all spilt,--it warn't so in my day," said the guide.
+
+A rivulet, whose murmur I had long heard, now stole suddenly into view,
+and gave to the scene the crowning charm.  As, relapsing into silence,
+we tracked its sylvan course, under dripping chestnuts and shady limes,
+the house itself emerged on the opposite side,--a modern building of
+white stone, with the noblest Corinthian portico I ever saw in this
+country.
+
+"A fine house indeed," said I.  "Is Mr. Trevanion here much?"
+
+"Ay, ay!  I don't mean to say that he goes away altogether, but it ain't
+as it wor in my day, when the Hogtons lived here all the year round in
+their warm house,--not that one."
+
+Good old woman, and these poor banished Hogtons, thought I,--hateful
+parvenu!  I was pleased when a curve in the shrubberies shut out the
+house from view, though in reality bringing us nearer to it.  And the
+boasted cascade, whose roar I had heard for some moments, came in sight.
+
+Amidst the Alps, such a waterfall would have been insignificant, but
+contrasting ground highly dressed, with no other bold features, its
+effect was striking, and even grand.  The banks were here narrowed and
+compressed; rocks, partly natural, partly no doubt artificial, gave a
+rough aspect to the margin; and the cascade fell from a considerable
+height into rapid waters, which my guide mumbled out were "mortal deep."
+
+"There wor a madman leapt over where you be standing," said the old
+woman, "two years ago last June."
+
+"A madman! why," said I, observing, with an eye practised in the
+gymnasium of the Hellenic Institute, the narrow space of the banks over
+the gulf,--"why, my good lady, it need not be a madman to perform that
+leap."
+
+And so saying, with one of those sudden impulses which it would be wrong
+to ascribe to the noble quality of courage, I drew back a few steps, and
+cleared the abyss.  But when from the other side I looked back at what I
+had done, and saw that failure had been death, a sickness came over me,
+and I felt as if I would not have releapt the gulf to become lord of the
+domain.
+
+"And how am I to get back?" said I, in a forlorn voice to the old woman,
+who stood staring at me on the other side.  "Ah!  I see there is a
+bridge below."
+
+"But you can't go over the bridge, there's a gate on it; master keeps
+the key himself.  You are in the private grounds now.  Dear, dear! the
+squire would be so angry if he knew.  You must go back; and they'll see
+you from the house!  Dear me! dear, dear!  What shall I do?  Can't you
+leap back again?"
+
+Moved by these piteous exclamations, and not wishing to subject the poor
+old lady to the wrath of a master evidently an unfeeling tyrant, I
+resolved to pluck up courage and releap the dangerous abyss.
+
+"Oh, yes, never fear," said I, therefore.  "What's been done once ought
+to be done twice, if needful.  Just get out of my way, will you?"
+
+And I receded several paces over a ground much too rough to favor my run
+for a spring.  But my heart knocked against my ribs.  I felt that
+impulse can do wonders where preparation fails.
+
+"You had best be quick, then," said the old woman.
+
+Horrid old woman!  I began to esteem her less.  I set my teeth, and was
+about to rush on, when a voice close beside me said,--
+
+"Stay, young man; I will let you through the gate."
+
+I turned round sharply, and saw close by my side, in great wonder that I
+had not seen him before, a man, whose homely (but not working) dress
+seemed to intimate his station as that of the head-gardener, of whom my
+guide had spoken.  He was seated on a stone under a chestnut-tree, with
+an ugly cur at his feet, who snarled at me as I turned.
+
+"Thank you, my man," said I, joyfully.  "I confess frankly that I was
+very much afraid of that leap."
+
+"Ho!  Yet you said, what can be done once can be done twice."
+
+"I did not say it could be done, but ought to be done."
+
+"Humph!  That's better put."
+
+Here the man rose; the dog came and smelt my legs, and then, as if
+satisfied with my respectability, wagged the stump of his tail.
+
+I looked across the waterfall for the old woman, and to my surprise saw
+her hobbling back as fast as she could.  "Ah!" said I, laughing, "the
+poor old thing is afraid you'll tell her master,--for you're the head
+gardener, I suppose?  But I am the only person to blame.  Pray say that,
+if you mention the circumstance at all!"  and I drew out half a crown,
+which I proffered to my new conductor.
+
+He put back the money with a low "Humph! not amiss."  Then, in a louder
+voice, "No occasion to bribe me, young man; I saw it all."
+
+"I fear your master is rather hard to the poor Hogtons' old servants."
+
+"Is he?  Oh! humph! my master.  Mr. Trevanion you mean?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I dare say people say so.  This is the way."  And he led me down
+a little glen away from the fall.  Everybody must have observed that
+after he has incurred or escaped a great danger, his spirits rise
+wonderfully; he is in a state of pleasing excitement.  So it was with
+me.  I talked to the gardener a coeur ouvert, as the French say; and I
+did not observe that his short monosyllables in rejoinder all served to
+draw out my little history,--my journey, its destination, my schooling
+under Dr. Herman, and my father's Great Book.  I was only made somewhat
+suddenly aware of the familiarity that had sprung up between us when,
+just as, having performed a circuitous meander, we regained the stream
+and stood before an iron gate set in an arch of rock-work, my companion
+said simply: "And your name, young gentleman?  What's your name?"
+
+I hesitated a moment; but having heard that such communications were
+usually made by the visitors of show places, I answered: "Oh! a very
+venerable one, if your master is what they call a bibliomaniac--Caxton."
+
+"Caxton!" cried the gardener, with some vivacity; "there is a Cumberland
+family of that name--"
+
+"That's mine; and my Uncle Roland is the head of that family."
+
+"And you are the son of Augustine Caxton?"
+
+"I am.  You have heard of my dear father, then?"
+
+"We will not pass by the gate now.  Follow me,--this way;" and my guide,
+turning abruptly round, strode up a narrow path, and the house stood a
+hundred yards before me ere I recovered my surprise.
+
+"Pardon me," said I, "but where are we going, my good friend?"
+
+"Good friend, good friend!  Well said, sir.  You are going amongst good
+friends.  I was at college with your father; I loved him well.  I knew a
+little of your uncle too.  My name is Trevanion."
+
+Blind young fool that I was!  The moment my guide told his name, I was
+struck with amazement at my unaccountable mistake.  The small,
+insignificant figure took instant dignity; the homely dress, of rough
+dark broadcloth, was the natural and becoming dishabille of a country
+gentleman in his own demesnes.  Even the ugly cur became a Scotch
+terrier of the rarest breed.
+
+My guide smiled good-naturedly at my stupor; and patting me on the
+shoulder, said,--
+
+"It is the gardener you must apologize to, not me.  He is a very
+handsome fellow, six feet high."
+
+I had not found my tongue before we had ascended a broad flight of
+stairs under the portico, passed a spacious hall adorned with statues
+and fragrant with large orange-trees, and, entering a small room hung
+with pictures, in which were arranged all the appliances for breakfast,
+my companion said to a lady, who rose from behind the tea-urn: "My dear
+Ellinor, I introduce to you the son of our old friend Augustine Caxton.
+Make him stay with us as long as he can.  Young gentleman, in Lady
+Ellinor Trevanion think that you see one whom you ought to know well;
+family friendships should descend."
+
+My host said these last words in an imposing tone, and then pounced on a
+letter-bag on the table, drew forth an immense heap of letters and
+newspapers, threw himself into an armchair, and seemed perfectly
+forgetful of my existence.
+
+The lady stood a moment in mute surprise, and I saw that she changed
+color from pale to red, and red to pale, before she came forward with
+the enchanting grace of unaffected kindness, took me by the hand, drew
+me to a seat next to her own, and asked so cordially after my father, my
+uncle, my whole family, that in five minutes I felt myself at home.
+Lady Ellinor listened with a smile (though with moistened eyes, which
+she wiped every now and then) to my artless details.  At length she
+said,--
+
+"Have you never heard your father speak of me,--I mean of us; of the
+Trevanions?"
+
+"Never," said I, bluntly; "and that would puzzle me, only my dear
+father, you know, is not a great talker."
+
+"Indeed! he was very animated when I knew him," said Lady Ellinor; and
+she turned her head and sighed.
+
+At this moment there entered a young lady so fresh, so blooming, so
+lovely that every other thought vanished out of my head at once.  She
+came in singing, as gay as a bird, and seeming to my adoring sight quite
+as native to the skies.
+
+"Fanny," said Lady Ellinor, "shake hands with Mr. Caxton, the son of one
+whom I have not seen since I was little older than you, but whom I
+remember as if it were but yesterday."
+
+Miss Fanny blushed and smiled, and held out her hand with an easy
+frankness which I in vain endeavored to imitate.  During breakfast, Mr.
+Trevanion continued to read his letters and glance over the papers, with
+an occasional ejaculation of "Pish!" "Stuff!" between the intervals in
+which he mechanically swallowed his tea, or some small morsels of dry
+toast.  Then rising with a suddenness which characterized his movements,
+he stood on his hearth for a few moments buried in thought; and now that
+a large-brimmed hat was removed from his brow, and the abruptness of his
+first movement, with the sedateness of his after pause, arrested my
+curious attention, I was more than ever ashamed of my mistake.  It was a
+careworn, eager, and yet musing countenance, hollow-eyed and with deep
+lines; but it was one of those faces which take dignity and refinement
+from that mental cultivation which distinguishes the true aristocrat,
+namely, the highly educated, acutely intelligent man.  Very handsome
+might that face have been in youth, for the features, though small, were
+exquisitely defined; the brow, partially bald, was noble and massive,
+and there was almost feminine delicacy in the curve of the lip.  The
+whole expression of the face was commanding, but sad.  Often, as my
+experience of life increased, have I thought to trace upon that
+expressive visage the history of energetic ambition curbed by a
+fastidious philosophy and a scrupulous conscience; but then all that I
+could see was a vague, dissatisfied melancholy, which dejected me I knew
+not why.
+
+Presently Trevanion returned to the table, collected his letters, moved
+slowly towards the door, and vanished.
+
+His wife's eyes followed him tenderly.  Those eyes reminded me of my
+mother's, as I verily believe did all eyes that expressed affection.  I
+crept nearer to her, and longed to press the white hand that lay so
+listless before me.
+
+"Will you walk out with us?" said Miss Trevanion, turning to me.  I
+bowed, and in a few minutes I found myself alone.  While the ladies left
+me, for their shawls and bonnets, I took up the newspapers which Mr.
+Trevanion had thrown on the table, by way of something to do.  My eye
+was caught by his own name; it occurred often, and in all the papers.
+There was contemptuous abuse in one, high eulogy in another; but one
+passage in a journal that seemed to aim at impartiality, struck me so
+much as to remain in my memory; and I am sure that I can still quote the
+sense, though not the exact words.  The paragraph ran somewhat thus:--
+
+"In the present state of parties, our contemporaries have not
+unnaturally devoted much space to the claims or demerits of Mr.
+Trevanion.  It is a name that stands unquestionably high in the House of
+Commons; but, as unquestionably, it commands little sympathy in the
+country.  Mr. Trevanion is essentially and emphatically a member of
+parliament.  He is a close and ready debater; he is an admirable
+chairman in committees.  Though never in office, his long experience of
+public life, his gratuitous attention to public business, have ranked
+him high among those practical politicians from whom ministers are
+selected.  A man of spotless character and excellent intentions, no
+doubt, he must be considered; and in him any cabinet would gain an
+honest and a useful member.  There ends all we can say in his praise.
+As a speaker, he wants the fire and enthusiasm which engage the popular
+sympathies.  He has the ear of the House, not the heart of the country.
+An oracle on subjects of mere business, in the great questions of policy
+he is comparatively a failure.  He never embraces any party heartily; he
+never espouses any question as if wholly in earnest.  The moderation on
+which he is said to pique himself often exhibits itself in fastidious
+crotchets and an attempt at philosophical originality of candor which
+has long obtained him, with his enemies, the reputation of a trimmer.
+Such a man circumstances may throw into temporary power; but can he
+command lasting influence?  No.  Let Mr. Trevanion remain in what Nature
+and position assign as his proper post,--that of an upright,
+independent, able member of parliament; conciliating sensible men on
+both sides, when party runs into extremes.  He is undone as a cabinet
+minister.  His scruples would break up any government; and his want of
+decision--when, as in all human affairs, some errors must be conceded to
+obtain a great good--would shipwreck his own fame."
+
+I had just got to the end of this paragraph when the ladies returned.
+
+My hostess observed the newspaper in my hand, and said, with a
+constrained smile, "Some attack on Mr. Trevanion, I suppose?"
+
+"No," said I, awkwardly; for perhaps the paragraph that appeared to me
+so impartial, was the most galling attack of all,--"No, not exactly."
+
+"I never read the papers now,--at least what are called the leading
+articles; it is too painful.  And once they gave me so much pleasure,--
+that was when the career began, and before the fame was made."
+
+Here Lady Ellinor opened the window which admitted on the lawn, and in a
+few moments we were in that part of the pleasure-grounds which the
+family reserved from the public curiosity.  We passed by rare shrubs and
+strange flowers, long ranges of conservatories, in which bloomed and
+lived all the marvellous vegetation of Africa and the Indies.
+
+"Mr. Trevanion is fond of flowers?" said I.
+
+The fair Fanny laughed.  "I don't think he knows one from another."
+
+"Nor I either," said I,--"that is, when I fairly lose sight of a rose or
+a hollyhock."
+
+"The farm will interest you more," said Lady Ellinor.
+
+We came to farm buildings recently erected, and no doubt on the most
+improved principle.  Lady Ellinor pointed out to me machines and
+contrivances of the newest fashion for abridging labor and perfecting
+the mechanical operations of agriculture.
+
+"Ah! then Mr. Trevanion is fond of farming?"  The pretty Fanny laughed
+again.
+
+"My father is one of the great oracles in agriculture, one of the great
+patrons of all its improvements; but as for being fond of farming, I
+doubt if he knows his own fields when he rides through them."
+
+We returned to the house; and Miss Trevanion, whose frank kindness had
+already made too deep an impression upon the youthful heart of
+Pisistratus the Second, offered to show me the picture-gallery.  The
+collection was confined to the works of English artists; and Miss
+Trevanion pointed out to me the main attractions of the gallery.
+
+"Well, at least Mr. Trevanion is fond of pictures?"
+
+"Wrong again," said Fanny, shaking her arched head.  "My father is said
+to be an admirable judge; but he only buys pictures from a sense of
+duty,--to encourage our own painters.  A picture once bought, I am not
+sure that he ever looks at it again."
+
+"What does he then--"  I stopped short, for I felt my meditated question
+was ill-bred.
+
+"What does he like then? you were about to say.  Why, I have known him,
+of course, since I could know anything; but I have never yet discovered
+what my father does like.  No,--not even politics; though he lives for
+politics alone.  You look puzzled; you will know him better some day, I
+hope; but you will never solve the mystery--what Mr. Trevanion likes."
+
+"You are wrong," said Lady Ellinor, who had followed us into the room,
+unheard by us.  "I can tell you what your father does more than like,--
+what he loves and serves every hour of his noble life,--justice,
+beneficence, honor, and his country.  A man who loves these may be
+excused for indifference to the last geranium or the newest plough, or
+even (though that offends you more, Fanny) the freshest masterpiece by
+Lanseer, or the latest fashion honored by Miss Trevanion."
+
+"Mamma!" said Fanny, and the tears sprang to her eyes.  But Lady Ellinor
+looked to me sublime as she spoke, her eyes kindled, her breast heaved.
+The wife taking the husband's part against the child, and comprehending
+so well what the child felt not, despite its experience of every day,
+and what the world would never know, despite all the vigilance of its
+praise and its blame, was a picture, to my taste, finer than any in the
+collection.
+
+Her face softened as she saw the tears in Fanny's bright hazel eyes; she
+held out her hand, which her child kissed tenderly; and whispering, "'T
+is not the giddy word you must go by, mamma, or there will be something
+to forgive every minute," Miss Trevanion glided from the room.
+
+"Have you a sister?" asked Lady Ellinor.
+
+"No."
+
+"And Trevanion has no son," she said, mournfully.  The blood rushed to
+my cheeks.  Oh, young fool again!  We were both silent, when the door
+opened, and Mr. Trevanion entered.  "Humph!" said he, smiling as he saw
+me,--and his smile was charming, though rare.  "Humph, young sir, I came
+to seek for you,--I have been rude, I fear; pardon it.  That thought has
+only just occurred to me, so I left my Blue Books, and my amanuensis
+hard at work on them, to ask you to come out for half an hour,--just
+half an hour, it is all I can give you: a deputation at one!  You dine
+and sleep here, of course?"
+
+"Ah, sir, my mother will be so uneasy if I am not in town to-night!"
+
+"Pooh!" said the member; "I'll send an express."
+
+"Oh, no indeed; thank you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+I hesitated.  "You see, sir, that my father and mother are both new to
+London; and though I am new too, yet they may want me,--I may be of
+use."  Lady Ellinor put her hand on my head and sleeked down my hair as
+I spoke.
+
+"Right, young man, right; you will do in the world, wrong as that is.  I
+don't mean that you'll succeed, as the rogues say,--that's another
+question; but if you don't rise, you'll not fall.  Now put on your hat
+and come with me; we'll walk to the lodge,--you will be in time for a
+coach."
+
+I took my leave of Lady Ellinor, and longed to say something about
+"compliments to Miss Fanny;" but the words stuck in my throat, and my
+host seemed impatient.
+
+"We must see you soon again," said Lady Ellinor, kindly, as she followed
+us to the door.
+
+Mr. Trevanion walked on briskly and in silence, one hand in his bosom,
+the other swinging carelessly a thick walkingstick.
+
+"But I must go round by the bridge," said I, "for I forgot my knapsack.
+I threw it off when I made my leap, and the old lady certainly never
+took charge of it."
+
+"Come, then, this way.  How old are you?"
+
+"Seventeen and a half."
+
+"You know Latin and Greek as they know them at schools, I suppose?"
+
+"I think I know them pretty well, sir."
+
+"Does your father say so?"
+
+"Why, my father is fastidious; however, he owns that he is satisfied on
+the whole."
+
+"So am I, then.  Mathematics?"
+
+"A little."
+
+"Good."
+
+Here the conversation dropped for some time.  I had found and restrapped
+the knapsack, and we were near the lodge, when Mr. Trevanion said
+abruptly, "Talk, my young friend, talk; I like to hear you talk,--it
+refreshes me.  Nobody has talked naturally to me these last ten years."
+
+The request was a complete damper to my ingenuous eloquence; I could not
+have talked naturally now for the life of me.
+
+"I made a mistake, I see," said my companion, good-humoredly, noticing
+my embarrassment.  "Here we are at the lodge.  The coach will be by in
+five minutes: you can spend that time in hearing the old woman praise
+the Hogtons and abuse me.  And hark you, sir, never care three straws
+for praise or blame,--leather and prunella!  Praise and blame are here!"
+and he struck his hand upon his breast with almost passionate emphasis.
+"Take a specimen.  These Hogtons were the bane of the place,--uneducated
+and miserly; their land a wilderness, their village a pig-sty.  I come,
+with capital and intelligence; I redeem the soil, I banish pauperism, I
+civilize all around me: no merit in me, I am but a type of capital
+guided by education,--a machine.  And yet the old woman is not the only
+one who will hint to you that the Hogtons were angels, and myself the
+usual antithesis to angels.  And what is more, sir, because that old
+woman, who has ten shillings a week from me, sets her heart upon earning
+her sixpences,--and I give her that privileged luxury,--every visitor
+she talks to goes away with the idea that I, the rich Mr. Trevanion, let
+her starve on what she can pick up from the sightseers.  Now, does that
+signify a jot?  Good-by!  Tell your father his old friend must see him,
+--profit by his calm wisdom; his old friend is a fool sometimes, and sad
+at heart.  When you are settled, send me a line to St. James's Square,
+to say where you are.  Humph! that's enough."
+
+Mr. Trevanion wrung my hand, and strode off.
+
+I did not wait for the coach, but proceeded towards the turn-stile,
+where the old woman (who had either seen, or scented from a distance
+that tizzy of which I was the impersonation),--
+
+     "Hushed in grim repose, did wait her morning prey."
+
+My opinions as to her sufferings and the virtues of the departed Ho-tons
+somewhat modified, I contented myself with dropping into her open palm
+the exact sum virtually agreed on.  But that palm still remained open,
+and the fingers of the other clawed hold of me as I stood, impounded in
+the curve of the turn-stile, like a cork in a patent corkscrew.
+
+"And threepence for nephy Bob," said the old lady.
+
+"Threepence for nephew Bob, and why?"
+
+"It is his parquisites when he recommends a gentleman.  You would not
+have me pay out of my own earnings; for he will have it, or he'll ruin
+my bizziness.  Poor folk must be paid for their trouble."
+
+Obdurate to this appeal, and mentally consigning Bob to a master whose
+feet would be all the handsomer for boots, I threaded the stile and
+escaped.
+
+Towards evening I reached London.  Who ever saw London for the first
+time and was not disappointed?  Those long suburbs melting indefinably
+away into the capital forbid all surprise.  The gradual is a great
+disenchanter.  I thought it prudent to take a hackney-coach, and so
+jolted my way to the Hotel, the door of which was in a small street
+out of the Strand, though the greater part of the building faced that
+noisy thoroughfare.  I found my father in a state of great discomfort
+in a little room, which he paced up and down like a lion new caught
+in his cage.  My poor mother was full of complaints: for the first
+time in her life, I found her indisputably crossish.  It was an ill
+time to relate my adventures.
+
+I had enough to do to listen.  They had all day been hunting for
+lodgings in vain.  My father's pocket had been picked of a new India
+handkerchief.  Primmins, who ought to know London so well, knew nothing
+about it, and declared it was turned topsy-turvy, and all the streets
+had changed names.  The new silk umbrella, left for five minutes
+unguarded in the hall, had been exchanged for an old gingham with three
+holes in it.
+
+It was not till my mother remembered that if she did not see herself
+that my bed was well aired I should certainly lose the use of my limbs,
+and therefore disappeared with Primmins and a pert chambermaid, who
+seemed to think we gave more trouble than we were worth, that I told my
+father of my new acquaintance with Mr. Trevanion.
+
+He did not seem to listen to me till I got to the name "Trevanion."  He
+then became very pale, and sat down quietly.  "Go on," said he,
+observing I stopped to look at him.
+
+When I had told all, and given him the kind messages with which I had
+been charged by husband and wife, he smiled faintly; and then, shading
+his face with his hand, he seemed to muse, not cheerfully, perhaps, for
+I heard him sigh once or twice.
+
+"And Ellinor," said he at last, without looking up,--"Lady Ellinor, I
+mean; she is very--very--"
+
+"Very what, sir?"
+
+"Very handsome still?"
+
+"Handsome!  Yes, handsome, certainly; but I thought more of her manner
+than her face.  And then Fanny, Miss Fanny, is so young!"
+
+"Ah!" said my father, murmuring in Greek the celebrated lines of which
+Pope's translation is familiar to all,--
+
+     "'Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found, Now green     in
+     youth, now withering on the ground.'
+
+"Well, so they wish to see me.  Did Ellinor--Lady Ellinor--say that, or
+her--her husband?"
+
+"Her husband, certainly; Lady Ellinor rather implied than said it."
+
+"We shall see," said my father.  "Open the window; this room is
+stifling."
+
+I opened the window, which looked on the Strand.  The noise, the voices,
+the trampling feet, the rolling wheels, became loudly audible.  My
+father leaned out for some moments, and I stood by his side.  He turned
+to me with a serene face.  "Every ant on the hill," said he, "carries
+its load, and its home is but made by the burden that it bears.  How
+happy am I! how I should bless God!  How light my burden! how secure my
+home!"
+
+My mother came in as he ceased.  He went up to her, put his arm round
+her waist and kissed her.  Such caresses with him had not lost their
+tender charm by custom: my mother's brow, before somewhat ruffled, grew
+smooth on the instant.  Yet she lifted her eyes to his in soft surprise.
+
+"I was but thinking," said my father, apologetically, "how much I owed
+you, and how much I love you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+And now behold us, three days after my arrival, settled in all the state
+and grandeur of our own house in Russell Street, Bloomsbury, the library
+of the Museum close at hand.  My father spends his mornings in those
+lata silentia, as Virgil calls the world beyond the grave.  And a world
+beyond the grave we may well call that land of the ghosts,--a book
+collection.
+
+"Pisistratus," said my father one evening, as he arranged his notes
+before him and rubbed his spectacles, "Pisistratus, a great library is
+an awful place!  There, are interred all the remains of men since the
+Flood."
+
+"It is a burial-place!" quoth my Uncle Roland, who had that day found us
+out.
+
+"Please, not such hard words," said the Captain, shaking his head.
+
+"Heraclea was the city of necromancers, in which they raised the dead.
+Do  want to speak to Cicero?---I invoke him.  Do I want to chat in the
+Athenian market-place, and hear news two thousand years old?---I write
+down my charm on a slip of paper, and a grave magician calls me up
+Aristophanes.  And we owe all this to our ancest--"
+
+"Ancestors who wrote books; thank you."
+
+Here Roland offered his snuff-box to my father, who, abhorring snuff,
+benignly imbibed a pinch, and sneezed five times in consequence,--an
+excuse for Uncle Roland to say, which he did five times, with great
+unction, "God bless you, brother Austin!"
+
+As soon as my father had recovered himself, he proceeded, with tears in
+his eyes, but calm as before the interruption--for he was of the
+philosophy of the Stoics,--
+
+"But it is not that which is awful.  It is the presuming to vie with
+these `spirits elect;' to say to them, 'Make way,--I too claim place
+with the chosen.  I too would confer with the living, centuries after
+the death that consumes my dust.  I too--'  Ah, Pisistratus!  I wish
+Uncle Jack had been at Jericho before he had brought me up to London and
+placed me in the midst of those rulers of the world!"
+
+I was busy, while my father spoke, in making some pendent shelves for
+these "spirits elect;" for my mother, always provident where my father's
+comforts were concerned, had foreseen the necessity of some such
+accommodation in a hired lodging-house, and had not only carefully
+brought up to town my little box of tools, but gone out herself that
+morning to buy the raw materials.  Checking the plane in its progress
+over the smooth deal, "My dear father," said I, "if at the Philhellenic
+Institute I had looked with as much awe as you do on the big fellows
+that had gone before me, I should have stayed, to all eternity, the lag
+of the Infant Division."
+
+"Pisistratus, you are as great an agitator as your namesake," cried my
+father, smiling.  "And so, a fig for the big fellows!"
+
+And now my mother entered in her pretty evening cap, all smiles and good
+humor, having just arranged a room for Uncle Roland, concluded
+advantageous negotiations with the laundress, held high council with
+Mrs. Primmins on the best mode of defeating the extortions of London
+tradesmen, and, pleased with herself and all the world, she kissed my
+father's forehead as it bent over his notes, and came to the tea-table,
+which only waited its presiding deity.  My Uncle Roland, with his usual
+gallantry, started up, kettle in hand (our own urn--for we had one--not
+being yet unpacked), and having performed with soldier-like method the
+chivalrous office thus volunteered, he joined me at my employment, and
+said,--
+
+"There is a better steel for the hands of a well-born lad than a
+carpenter's plane."
+
+"Aha! Uncle--that depends--"
+
+"Depends!  What on?"
+
+"On the use one makes of it.  Peter the Great was better employed in
+making ships than Charles XII. in cutting throats."
+
+"Poor Charles XII.!" said my uncle, sighing pathetically; "a very brave
+fellow!"
+
+"Pity he did not like the ladies a little better!"
+
+"No man is perfect!" said my uncle, sententiously.  "But, seriously, you
+are now the male hope of the family; you are now-"  My uncle stopped,
+and his face darkened.  I saw that he thought of his son,--that
+mysterious son!  And looking at him tenderly, I observed that his deep
+lines had grown deeper, his iron-gray hair more gray.  There was the
+trace of recent suffering on his face; and though he had not spoken to
+us a word of the business on which he had left us, it required no
+penetration to perceive that it had come to no successful issue.
+
+My uncle resumed: "Time out of mind, every generation of our house has
+given one soldier to his country.  I look round now: only one branch is
+budding yet on the old tree; and--"
+
+"Ah! uncle.  But what would they say?  Do you think I should not like to
+be a soldier?  Don't tempt me!"
+
+My uncle had recourse to his snuff-box; and at that moment--
+unfortunately, perhaps, for the laurels that might otherwise have
+wreathed the brows of Pisistratus of England--private conversation was
+stopped by the sudden and noisy entrance of Uncle Jack.  No apparition
+could have been more unexpected.
+
+"Here I am, my dear friends.  How d'ye do; how are you all?  Captain de
+Caxton, yours heartily.  Yes, I am released, thank Heaven!  I have given
+up the drudgery of that pitiful provincial paper.  I was not made for
+it.  An ocean in a tea cup!  I was indeed!  Little, sordid, narrow
+interests; and I, whose heart embraces all humanity,--you might as well
+turn a circle into an isolated triangle."
+
+"Isosceles!" said my father, sighing as he pushed aside his notes, and
+very slowly becoming aware of the eloquence that destroyed all chance of
+further progress that night in the Great Book.  "'Isosceles' triangle,
+Jack Tibbets, not 'isolated."'
+
+"'Isosceles' or 'isolated,' it is all one," said Uncle Jack, as he
+rapidly performed three evolutions, by no means consistent with his
+favorite theory of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number,"--
+first, he emptied into the cup which he took from my mother's hands half
+the thrifty contents of a London cream-jug; secondly, he reduced the
+circle of a muffin, by the abstraction of three triangles, to as nearly
+an isosceles as possible; and thirdly, striding towards the fire,
+lighted in consideration of Captain de Caxton, and hooking his coat-
+tails under his arms while he sipped his tea, he permitted another
+circle peculiar to humanity wholly to eclipse the luminary it
+approached.
+
+"'Isolated' or 'isosceles,' it is all the same thing.  Alan is
+made for his fellow-creatures.  I had long been disgusted with the
+interference of those selfish Squirearchs.  Your departure decided me.
+I have concluded negotiations with a London firm of spirit and capital
+and extended views of philanthropy.  On Saturday last I retired from the
+service of the oligarchy.
+
+"I am now in my true capacity of protector of the million.  My prospectus
+is printed,--here it is in my pocket.  Another cup of tea, sister; a
+little more cream, and another muffin.  Shall I ring?"  Having
+disembarrassed himself of his cup and saucer, Uncle Jack then drew forth
+from his pocket a damp sheet of printed paper.  In large capitals stood
+out "The Anti-Monopoly Gazette; or Popular Champion."  He waved it
+triumphantly before my father's eyes.
+
+"Pisistratus," said my father, "look here.  This is the way your Uncle
+Jack now prints his pats of butter,--a cap of liberty growing out of an
+open book!  Good, Jack! good! good!"
+
+"It is Jacobinical!" exclaimed the Captain.
+
+"Very likely," said my father; "but knowledge and freedom are the best
+devices in the world to print upon pats of butter intended for the
+market."
+
+"Pats of butter!  I don't understand," said Uncle Jack.  "The less you
+understand, the better will the butter sell, Jack," said my father,
+settling back to his notes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Uncle Jack had made up his mind to lodge with us, and my mother found
+some difficulty in inducing him to comprehend that there was no bed to
+spare.
+
+"That's unlucky," said he.  "I had no sooner arrived in town than I was
+pestered with invitations; but I refused them all, and kept myself for
+you."
+
+"So kind in you, so like you!" said my mother; "but you see--"
+
+"Well, then, I must be off and find a room.  Don't fret; you know I can
+breakfast and dine with you all the same,--that is, when my other
+friends will let me.  I shall be dreadfully persecuted."  So saying,
+Uncle Jack repocketed his prospectus and wished us good-night.
+
+The clock had struck eleven, my mother had retired, when my father
+looked up from his books and returned his spectacles to their case.  I
+had finished my work, and was seated over the fire, thinking now of
+Fanny Trevanion's hazel eyes, now, with a heart that beat as high at the
+thought, of campaigns, battle-fields, laurels, and glory; while, with
+his arms folded on his breast and his head drooping, Uncle Roland gazed
+into the low clear embers.  My father cast his eyes round the room, and
+after surveying his brother for some moments he said, almost in a
+whisper,--
+
+"My son has seen the Trevanions.  They remember us, Roland."
+
+The Captain sprang to his feet and began whistling,--a habit with him
+when he was much disturbed.
+
+"And Trevanion wishes to see us.  Pisistratus promised to give him our
+address: shall he do so, Roland?"
+
+"If you like it," answered the Captain, in a military attitude, and
+drawing himself up till he looked seven feet high.
+
+"I should like it," said my father, mildly.  "Twenty years since we
+met."
+
+"More than twenty," said my uncle, with a stern smile; "and the season
+was--the fall of the leaf!"
+
+"Man renews the fibre and material of his body every seven years," said
+my father; "in three times seven years he has time to renew the inner
+man.  Can two passengers in yonder street be more unlike each other than
+the soul is to the soul after an interval of twenty years?  Brother, the
+plough does not pass over the soil in vain, nor care over the human
+heart.  New crops change the character of the land; and the plough must
+go deep indeed before it stirs up the mother stone."
+
+"Let us see Trevanion," cried my uncle; then, turning to me, he said
+abruptly, "What family has he?"
+
+"One daughter."
+
+"No son?"
+
+"No."
+
+"That must vex the poor, foolish, ambitious man.  Oho! you admire this
+Mr. Trevanion much, eh?  Yes, that fire of manner, his fine words, and
+bold thoughts, were made to dazzle youth."
+
+"Fine words, my dear uncle,--fire!  I should have said, in hearing Mr.
+Trevanion, that his style of conversation was so homely you would wonder
+how he could have won such fame as a public speaker."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"The plough has passed there," said my father.
+
+"But not the plough of care: rich, famous, Ellinor his wife, and no
+son!"
+
+"It is because his heart is sometimes sad that he would see us."
+
+Roland stared first at my father, next at me.  "Then," quoth my uncle,
+heartily, "in God's name, let him come.  I can shake him by the hand, as
+I would a brother soldier.  Poor Trevanion!  Write to him at once,
+Sisty."
+
+I sat down and obeyed.  When I had sealed my letter, I looked up, and
+saw that Roland was lighting his bed-candle at my father's table; and my
+father, taking his hand, said something to him in a low voice.  I
+guessed it related to his son, for he shook his head, and answered in a
+stern, hollow voice, "Renew grief if you please; not shame.  On that
+subject--silence!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Left to myself in the earlier part of the day, I wandered, wistful and
+lonely, through the vast wilderness of London.  By degrees I
+familiarized myself with that populous solitude; I ceased to pine for
+the green fields.  That active energy all around, at first saddening,
+became soon exhilarating, and at last contagious.  To an industrious
+mind, nothing is so catching as industry.  I began to grow weary of my
+golden holiday of unlaborious childhood, to sigh for toil, to look
+around me for a career.  The University, which I had before anticipated
+with pleasure, seemed now to fade into a dull monastic prospect; after
+having trod the streets of London, to wander through cloisters was to go
+back in life.  Day by day, my mind grew sensibly within me; it came out
+from the rosy twilight of boyhood,--it felt the doom of Cain under the
+broad sun of man.
+
+Uncle Jack soon became absorbed in his new speculation for the good of
+the human race, and, except at meals (whereat, to do him justice, he was
+punctual enough, though he did not keep us in ignorance of the
+sacrifices he made, and the invitations he refused, for our sake), we
+seldom saw him.  The Captain, too, generally vanished after breakfast,
+seldom dined with us, and it was often late before he returned.  He had
+the latch-key of the house, and let himself in when he pleased.
+Sometimes (for his chamber was next to mine) his step on the stairs
+awoke me; and sometimes I heard him pace his room with perturbed
+strides, or fancied that I caught a low groan.  He became every day more
+care-worn in appearance, and every day the hair seemed more gray.  Yet
+he talked to us all easily and cheerfully; and I thought that I was the
+only one in the house who perceived the gnawing pangs over which the
+stout old Spartan drew the decorous cloak.
+
+Pity, blended with admiration, made me curious to learn how these absent
+days, that brought night so disturbed, were consumed.  I felt that, if I
+could master the Captain's secret, I might win the right both to comfort
+and to aid.
+
+I resolved at length, after many conscientious scruples, to endeavor to
+satisfy a curiosity excused by its motives.
+
+Accordingly, one morning, after watching him from the house, I stole in
+his track, and followed him at a distance.
+
+And this was the outline of his day: he set off at first with a firm
+stride, despite his lameness, his gaunt figure erect, the soldierly
+chest well thrown out from the threadbare but speckless coat.  First he
+took his way towards the purlieus of Leicester Square; several times, to
+and fro, did he pace the isthmus that leads from Piccadilly into that
+reservoir of foreigners, and the lanes and courts that start thence
+towards St. Martin's.  After an hour or two so passed, the step became
+more slow; and often the sleek, napless hat was lifted up, and the brow
+wiped.  At length he bent his way towards the two great theatres, paused
+before the play-bills, as if deliberating seriously on the chances of
+entertainment they severally proffered, wandered slowly through the
+small streets that surround those temples of the Muse, and finally
+emerged into the Strand.  There he rested himself for an hour at a small
+cook-shop; and as I passed the window and glanced within, I could see
+him seated before the simple dinner, which he scarcely touched, and
+poring over the advertisement columns of the "Times."  The "Times"
+finished, and a few morsels distastefully swallowed, the Captain put
+down his shilling in silence, receiving his pence in exchange, and I had
+just time to slip aside as he reappeared at the threshold.  He looked
+round as he lingered,--but I took care he should not detect me,--and
+then struck off towards the more fashionable quarters of the town.  It
+was now the afternoon, and, though not yet the season, the streets
+swarmed with life.  As he came into Waterloo Place, a slight but
+muscular figure buttoned up across the breast like his own cantered by
+on a handsome bay horse; every eye was on that figure.  Uncle Roland
+stopped short, and lifted his hand to his hat; the rider touched his own
+with his forefinger, and cantered on; Uncle Roland turned round and
+gazed.
+
+"Who," I asked of a shop-boy just before me, also staring with all his
+eyes, "who is that gentleman on horseback?"
+
+"Why, the Duke to be sure," said the boy, contemptuously.
+
+"The Duke?"
+
+"Wellington, stu-pid!"
+
+"Thank you," said I, meekly.  Uncle Roland had moved on into Regent
+Street, but with a brisker step: the sight of the old chief had done the
+old soldier good.  Here again he paced to and fro; till I, watching him
+from the other side of the way, was ready to drop with fatigue, stout
+walker though I was.  But the Captain's day was not half done.  He took
+out his watch, put it to his ear, and then, replacing it, passed into
+Bond Street, and thence into Hyde Park.  There, evidently wearied out,
+he leaned against the rails, near the bronze statue, in an attitude that
+spoke despondency.  I seated myself on the grass near the statue, and
+gazed at him: the park was empty compared with the streets, but still
+there were some equestrian idlers, and many foot-loungers.  My uncle's
+eye turned wistfully on each: once or twice, some gentleman of a
+military aspect (which I had already learned to detect) stopped, looked
+at him, approached, and spoke; but the Captain seemed as if ashamed of
+such greetings.  He answered shortly, and turned again.
+
+The day waned,--evening came on; the Captain again looked at his watch,
+shook his head, and made his way to a bench, where he sat perfectly
+motionless, his hat over his brows, his arms folded, till up rose the
+moon.  I had tasted nothing since breakfast, I was famished; but I still
+kept my post like an old Roman sentinel.
+
+At length the Captain rose, and re-entered Piccadilly; but how different
+his mien and bearing!---languid, stooping; his chest sunk, his head
+inclined; his limbs dragging one after the other; his lameness painfully
+perceptible.  What a contrast in the broken invalid at night from the
+stalwart veteran of the morning!
+
+How I longed to spring forward to offer my arm! but I did not dare.
+
+The Captain stopped near a cab-stand.  He put his hand in his pocket, he
+drew out his purse, he passed his fingers over the net-work; the purse
+slipped again into the pocket, and as if with a heroic effort, my uncle
+drew up his head and walked on sturdily.
+
+"Where next?" thought I.  "Surely home!  No, he is pitiless!"
+
+The Captain stopped not till he arrived at one of the small theatres in
+the Strand; then he read the bill, and asked if half price was begun.
+"Just begun," was the answer, and the Captain entered.  I also took a
+ticket and followed.  Passing by the open doors of a refreshment-room, I
+fortified myself with some biscuits and soda-water; and in another
+minute, for the first time in my life, I beheld a play.  But the play
+did not fascinate me.  It was the middle of some jocular after piece;
+roars of laughter resounded round me.  I could detect nothing to laugh
+at, and sending my keen eyes into every corner, I perceived at last, in
+the uppermost tier, one face as saturnine as my own.--Eureka!  It was
+the Captain's!  "Why should he go to a play if he enjoys it so little?"
+thought I; "better have spent a shilling on a cab, poor old fellow!"
+
+But soon came smart-looking men, and still smarter-looking ladies,
+around the solitary corner of the poor Captain.  He grew fidgety--he
+rose--he vanished.  I left my place, and stood without the box to watch
+for him.  Downstairs he stumped,--I recoiled into the shade; and after
+standing a moment or two, as in doubt, he entered boldly the
+refreshment-room or saloon.
+
+Now, since I had left that saloon it had become crowded, and I slipped
+in unobserved.  Strange was it, grotesque yet pathetic, to mark the old
+soldier in the midst of that gay swarm.  He towered above all like a
+Homeric hero, a head taller than the tallest; and his appearance was so
+remarkable that it invited the instant attention of the fair.  I, in my
+simplicity, thought it was the natural tenderness of that amiable and
+penetrating sex, ever quick to detect trouble and anxious to relieve it,
+which induced three ladies in silk attire--one having a hat and plume,
+the other two with a profusion of ringlets--to leave a little knot of
+gentlemen--with whom they were conversing, and to plant themselves
+before my uncle.  I advanced through the press to hear what passed.
+
+"You are looking for some one, I'm sure," quoth one familiarly, tapping
+his arm with her fan.
+
+The Captain started.  "Ma'am, you are not wrong," said he.
+
+"Can I do as well?" said one of those compassionate angels, with
+heavenly sweetness.
+
+"You are very kind, I thank you; no, no, ma'am," said the Captain with
+his best bow.
+
+"Do take a glass of negus," said another, as her friend gave way to her.
+"You seem tired, and so am I.  Here, this way;" and she took hold of
+his arm to lead him to the table.  The Captain shook his head
+mournfully; and then, as if suddenly aware of the nature of the
+attentions so lavished on him, he looked down upon these fair Armidas
+with a look of such mild reproach, such sweet compassion,--not shaking
+off the hand, in his chivalrous devotion to the sex, which extended even
+to all its outcasts,--that each bold eye felt abashed.  The hand was
+timidly and involuntarily withdrawn from the arm, and my uncle passed
+his way.
+
+He threaded the crowd, passed out at the farther door, and I, guessing
+his intention, was in waiting for his steps in the street.
+
+"Now home at last, thank Heaven!" thought I.  Mistaken still!  My uncle
+went first towards that popular haunt which I have since discovered is
+called "the Shades;" but he soon re-emerged, and finally he knocked at
+the door of a private house in one of the streets out of St. James's.
+It was opened jealously, and closed as he entered, leaving me without.
+What could this house be?  As I stood and watched, some other men
+approached: again the low single knock, again the jealous opening and
+the stealthy entrance.
+
+A policeman passed and re-passed me.  "Don't be tempted, young man,"
+said he, looking hard at me: "take my advice, and go home."
+
+"What is that house, then?" said I, with a sort of shudder at this
+ominous warning.
+
+"Oh! you know."
+
+"Not I.  I am new to London."
+
+"It is a hell," said the policeman, satisfied, by my frank manner, that
+I spoke the truth.
+
+"God bless me,--a what?  I could not have heard you rightly!"
+
+"A hell,--a gambling-house!"
+
+"Oh!" and I moved on.  Could Captain Roland, the rigid, the thrifty, the
+penurious, be a gambler?  The light broke on me at once: the unhappy
+father sought his son!  I leaned against the post, and tried hard not to
+sob.
+
+By and by, I heard the door open; the Captain came out and took the way
+homeward.  I ran on before, and got in first, to the inexpressible
+relief both of father and mother, who had not seen me since breakfast,
+and who were in equal consternation at my absence.  I submitted to be
+scolded with a good grace.  "I had been sight-seeing, and lost my way;"
+begged for some supper, and slunk to bed; and five minutes afterwards
+the Captain's jaded step came wearily up the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 5 ***
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