l's cottage to say farewell to Jenny Denham previous to her
departure for Switzerland with her friend Clara Sherwin. She had never
seen a snow-mountain, and it was pleasant to him to observe in her eyes,
which he had known weighing and balancing intellectual questions more
than he quite liked, a childlike effort to conjure in imagination the
glories of the Alps. She appeared very happy, only a little anxious
about leaving Dr. Shrapnel with no one to take care of him for a whole
month. Beauchamp promised he would run over to him from Holdesbury, only
an hour by rail, as often as he could. He envied her the sight of the
Alps, he said, and tried to give her an idea of them, from which he
broke off to boast of a famous little Jersey bull that he had won from
a rival, an American, deeply in love with the bull; cutting him out by
telegraph by just five minutes. The latter had examined the bull in the
island and had passed on to Paris, not suspecting there would be haste
to sell him. Beauchamp, seeing the bull advertized, took him on trust,
galloped to the nearest telegraph station forthwith, and so obtained
possession of him; and the bull was now shipped on the voyage. But for
this precious bull, however, and other business, he would have been able
to spend almost the entire month with Dr. Shrapnel, he said regretfully.
Miss Denham on the contrary did not regret his active occupation. The
story of his rush from the breakfast-table to the stables, and gallop
away to the station, while the American Quaker gentleman soberly paced
down a street in Paris on the same errand, in invisible rivalry, touched
her risible fancy. She was especially pleased to think of him living in
harmony with his uncle--that strange, lofty, powerful man, who by plot
or by violence punished opposition to his will, but who must be kind at
heart, as well as forethoughtful of his nephew's good; the assurance
of it being, that when the conflict was at an end he had immediately
installed him as manager of one of his estates, to give his energy play
and make him practically useful.

The day before she left home was passed by the three in botanizing, some
miles distant from Bevisham, over sand country, marsh and meadow;
Dr. Shrapnel, deep in the science, on one side of her, and Beauchamp,
requiring instruction in the names and properties of every plant and
simple, on the other. It was a day of summer sweetness, gentle laughter,
conversation, and the happiest hom