a
plate of boiled rabbit, adding a slice of the pink, home-cured bacon,
which Gwilym was cutting with a smile of amusement at her playful ruse.

"Now, potatoes and onion sauce, salt, cabbages, knife and fork, and now
the dear old king is going to eat a good dinner."

Ebben Owens laughingly took his knife and fork, and in spite of the
previous tears, the meal was a cheerful one, even Tudor stood up with
his paws on the table with a joyous bark.

Will's letters were the grand excitement of the farm, coming at first
pretty regularly once a week--read aloud by Ann in the best kitchen,
examined carefully by her father lest a word should have escaped the
reader, carried out to farm kitchen or stable or field, and read to the
servants, who listened with gaping admiration.

"There's a scholar he is! Caton pawb! Indeed, Mishteer, there's proud
you must be of him!" And all this was incense to Ebben Owens's heart.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BIRD FLUTTERS

In the first term of his college life Will fully realised his
pleasantest anticipations, and now, if never before, he acknowledged to
himself his deep indebtedness to Gwilym Morris; his own abilities he
had never doubted. The ease, too, with which he had matriculated much
elated him, and he began his studies with a light heart and a happy
consciousness of talent, which, coupled with a dogged perseverance and
a determination to overcome every obstacle in his path, ensured success
in the long run. He had one fixed and constant aim, namely,
advancement in the career upon which he had entered, and in furtherance
of this object, he was determined to let no hankering after the past
stand in his way. In his own opinion there were but two hindrances to
his progress, two shadows from the past to darken his path, and these
were his obscure birth and his love for Morva, for this he had not yet
succeeded in crushing. Before he left home his constant intercourse
with her and the ease with which they met had prevented the usual
anxieties which are said to beset the path of love. With innate
selfishness, he had taken to himself all the pleasure derivable from
their close companionship, without troubling himself much as to the
state of the girl's feelings. That she was true to him, he had never
had reason to doubt. Since he left home things had taken a different
aspect; true, the thought of Morva was interwoven with all he did or
read or studied, but there was an accompanying fee