the
heart of the reader, and vivified feelings that seemed unknown before.
Randal laid the book down softly; and for five minutes the ignoble and
base purposes to which his own knowledge was applied, stood before him,
naked and unmasked.

"Tut," said he, wrenching himself violently away from the benign
influence, "it was not to sympathize with Hector, but to conquer with
Achilles, that Alexander of Macedon kept Homer under his pillow. Such
should be the use of books to him who has the practical world to subdue;
let parsons and women construe it otherwise as they may!"

And the Principle of Evil descended again upon the intellect, from which
the guide of beneficence was gone.

CHAPTER X.

Randal rose at the sound of the first breakfast bell, and on the
staircase met Mrs. Hazeldean. He gave her back the book; and as he was
about to speak, she beckoned to him to follow her into a little
morning-room appropriated to herself. No boudoir of white and gold, with
pictures by Watteau, but lined with walnut-tree presses, that held the
old heir-loom linen strewed with lavender--stores for the housekeeper,
and medicines for the poor.

Seating herself on a large chair in this sanctum, Mrs. Hazeldean looked
formidably at home.

"Pray," said the lady, coming at once to the point with her usual
straightforward candor, "what is all this you have been saying to my
husband as to the possibility of Frank's marrying a foreigner?"

_Randal._--"Would you be as averse to such a notion as Mr. Hazeldean
is?"

_Mrs. Hazeldean._--"You ask me a question, instead of answering mine."

Randal was greatly put out in his fence by these rude thrusts. For
indeed he had a double purpose to serve--first thoroughly to know if
Frank's marriage with a woman like Madame di Negra would irritate the
Squire sufficiently to endanger the son's inheritance, and, secondly, to
prevent Mr. and Mrs. Hazeldean believing seriously that such a marriage
was to be apprehended, lest they should prematurely address Frank on the
subject, and frustrate the marriage itself. Yet, withal, he must so
express himself, that he could not be afterwards accused by the parents
of disguising matters. In his talk to the Squire the preceding day, he
had gone a little too far--farther than he would have done but for his
desire of escaping the cattle-shed and short-horns. While he mused, Mrs.
Hazeldean observed him with her honest sensible eyes, and finally
exclaimed--

"Out wit