yet a fact.

Mrs. Falconer had consulted the Misses Napier, who had many
acquaintances in Aberdeen, as to a place proper for Robert, and suitable
to her means. Upon this point Miss Letty, not without a certain touch
of design, as may appear in the course of my story, had been able to
satisfy her. In a small house of two floors and a garret, in the old
town, Mr. Lammie took leave of Robert.

It was from a garret window still, but a storm-window now that Robert
looked--eastward across fields and sand-hills, to the blue expanse of
waters--not blue like southern seas, but slaty blue, like the eyes of
northmen. It was rather dreary; the sun was shining from overhead now,
casting short shadows and much heat; the dew was gone up, and the lark
had come down; he was alone; the end of his journey was come, and was
not anything very remarkable. His landlady interrupted his gaze to know
what he would have for dinner, but he declined to use any discretion in
the matter. When she left the room he did not return to the window, but
sat down upon his box. His eye fell upon the other, a big wooden cube.
Of its contents he knew nothing. He would amuse himself by making
inquisition. It was nailed up. He borrowed a screwdriver and opened it.
At the top lay a linen bag full of oatmeal; underneath that was a thick
layer of oat-cake; underneath that two cheeses, a pound of butter, and
six pots of jam, which ought to have tasted of roses, for it came from
the old garden where the roses lived in such sweet companionship with
the currant bushes; underneath that, &c.; and underneath, &c., a box
which strangely recalled Shargar's garret, and one of the closets
therein. With beating heart he opened it, and lo, to his marvel, and the
restoration of all the fair day, there was the violin which Dooble Sanny
had left him when he forsook her for--some one or other of the queer
instruments of Fra Angelico's angels?

In a flutter of delight he sat down on his trunk again and played the
most mournful of tunes. Two white pigeons, which had been talking to
each other in the heat on the roof, came one on each side of the window
and peeped into the room; and out between them, as he played, Robert saw
the sea, and the blue sky above it. Is it any wonder that, instead of
turning to the lying pages and contorted sentences of the Livy which
he had already unpacked from his box, he forgot all about school, and
college, and bursary, and went on playing till his la