ur true sentiments. A little steadiness and
perseverance, and you will prevail.'

'Don't make me feverish, Jem.'

A summons to Lord Fitzjocelyn to come down to a visitor in the library
cut short the discussion, and James took leave at once, neither cousin
wishing to resume the conversation.

The darts had not been injudiciously aimed. The father and son were
both rendered uneasy. They had hitherto been unusually comfortable
together, and though the life was unexciting, Louis's desire to be
useful to his father, and the pressing need of working for his degree,
kept his mind fairly occupied. Though wistful looks might sometimes be
turned along the Northwold road, when he sallied forth in the twilight
for his constitutional walk, he did not analyse which number of the
Terrace was the magnet, and he avoided testing to the utmost the powers
of his foot. The affection and solicitude shown for him at home
claimed a full return; nor had James been greatly mistaken in ascribing
something to the facility of nature that yielded to force of character.
But Jem had stirred up much that Louis would have been contented to
leave dormant; and the hope that he had striven to excite came almost
teazingly to interfere with the passive acquiescence of an indolent
will. Perturbed and doubtful, he was going to seek counsel as usual of
the open air, as soon as the visitor was gone, but his father followed
him into the hall, asking whither he was going.

'I do not know. I had been thinking of trying whether I can get as far
as Marksedge.'

Marksedge would be fatal to the ankle, solitude to the spirits, thought
the Earl; and he at once declared his intention of walking with his son
as far as he should let him go.

Louis was half vexed, half flattered, and they proceeded in silence,
till conscious of being ruffled, and afraid of being ungracious, he
made a remark on the farm that they were approaching, and learnt in
return that the lease was nearly out, the tenant did not want a
renewal, and that Richardson intended to advertise.

He breathed a wish that it were in their own hands, and this led to a
statement of the condition of affairs, the same to which a year before
he had been wilfully deaf, and to which he now attended chiefly for the
sake of gratifying his father, though he better understood what
depended on it. At least, it was making the Earl insensible to the
space they were traversing, and the black outlines of Marksedge