may have to speak upon. His eyes are rather failing for
candle-light work, so I have been helping him in the evening, till it
struck me that it was a curious subject to trace in history,--the
Censors, the attempts in Germany and Spain, to supply the defective
law, the Spanish and Italian dread of justice. I became enamoured of
the notion, and when I have thrown all the hints together, I shall try
to take in my father by reading them to him as an article in the
Quarterly.'

'Oh, very well. If your soul is there, that is an end of the matter.'

'Of what matter?'

'Things cannot run on in this way. It is not a thing to lay upon me to
go on working in your cause with her when you will not stir a step in
your own behalf.'

'I am very much obliged to you, but I never asked you to work in my
cause. I beg your pardon, Jem, don't fly into a Welsh explosion. No
one ever meant more kindly and generously--' He checked himself in
amaze at the demonstration he had elicited; but, as it was not
accompanied with words, he continued, 'No one can be more grateful to
you than I; but, as far as I can see, there is nothing for it but to be
thankful that no more harm has been done, and to let the matter drop;'
and he dropped his hand with just so much despondency as to make Jem
think him worth storming at, instead of giving him up; and he went over
the old ground of Louis being incapable of true passion and unworthy of
such a being if he could yield her without an effort, merely for the
sake of peace.

'I say, Jem,' said Louis, quietly, 'all this was bad enough on neutral
ground; it is mere treason under my father's own roof, and I will have
no more of it.'

'Then,' cried James, with a strange light in his eyes, 'you henceforth
renounce all hopes--all pretensions?'

'I never had either hope or pretension. I do not cease to think her,
as I always did, the loveliest creature I ever beheld. I cannot help
that; and the state I fell into after being with her on Tuesday,
convinced me that it is safest to stay here and fill up time and
thought as best I may.'

'For once, Fitzjocelyn,' said James, with a gravity not natural to him,
'I think better of your father than you do. I would neither treat him
as so tyrannical nor so prejudiced as your conduct supposes him.'

'How? He is as kind as possible. We never had so much in common.'

'Yes. Your submission so far, and the united testimony of the Terrace,
will soften him. Show yo