are,
garments sufficient, but eminently unbecoming, were less impressive
than dungeons, rags, and bread and water; when, moreover, the prisoner
claimed no pity, but rather congratulation on his badge of merit,
improved Sunday dinner, and promotion to the carpenter's shop, so as
absolutely to excite a sense of wasted commiseration and uninteresting
prosperity. Conversation constrained both by the grating and the
presence of the warder, and Aubrey, more tenderly sensitive than his
brother, and devoid of his father's experienced tact, was too much
embarrassed to take the initiative, was afraid of giving pain by
dwelling on his present occupations and future hopes, and confused
Leonard by his embarrassment. Hector Ernescliffe discoursed about
Charleston Harbour and New Orleans; and Aubrey stood with downcast
eyes, afraid to seem to be scanning the convict garb, and thus
rendering Leonard unusually conscious of wearing it. Then when in
parting, Aubrey, a little less embarrassed, began eagerly and in much
emotion to beg Leonard to say if there was anything he could get for
him, anything he could do for him, anything he would like to have sent
him, and began to promise a photograph of his father, Leonard checked
him, by answering that it would be an irregularity--nothing of personal
property was allowed to be retained by a prisoner.

Aubrey forgot all but the hardship, and began an outburst about the
tyranny.

'It is quite right,' said Leonard, gravely; 'there is nothing that
might not be used for mischief if one chose.'

And the warder here interfered, and said he was quite right, and it
always turned out best in the end for a prisoner to conform himself,
and his friends did him no good by any other attempt, as Mr.
Ernescliffe could tell the young gentleman. The man's tone, though
neither insolent nor tyrannical, but rather commendatory of his charge,
contrasting with his natural deference to the two gentlemen, irritated
poor Aubrey beyond measure, so that Hector was really glad to have him
safe away, without his having said anything treasonable to the
authorities. The meeting, so constrained and uncomfortable, had but
made the friends more vividly conscious of the interval between the
cadet and the convict, and, moreover, tended to remove the aureole of
romance with which the unseen captive had been invested by youthful
fancy.

To make the best of a prolonged misfortune does absolutely lessen
sympathy, by diminish