of. I must do something for that queer protege of his,
though--that Shargar. The fellow is as good as a dog, and that's saying
not a little for him. I wonder if he can learn--or if he takes after his
father the marquis, who never could spell. Well, it is a comfort to have
something to do worth doing. I did think of endowing a hospital; but I'm
not sure that it isn't better to endow a good man than a hospital. I'll
think about it. I won't say anything about Shargar either, till I see
how he goes on. I might give him a job, though, now and then. But where
to fall in with him--prowling about after jobs?'

He threw himself back in his seat, and laughed with a delight he had
rarely felt. He was a providence watching over the boys, who expected
nothing of him beyond advice for Ericson! Might there not be a
Providence that equally transcended the vision of men, shaping to nobler
ends the blocked-out designs of their rough-hewn marbles?

His thoughts wandered back to his friend the Brahmin, who died longing
for that absorption into deity which had been the dream of his life:
might not the Brahmin find the grand idea shaped to yet finer issues
than his aspiration had dared contemplate?--might he not inherit in
the purification of his will such an absorption as should intensify his
personality?

CHAPTER IX. A HUMAN SOUL.

Ericson lay for several weeks, during which time Robert and Shargar were
his only nurses. They contrived, by abridging both rest and labour,
to give him constant attendance. Shargar went to bed early and got up
early, so as to let Robert have a few hours' sleep before his classes
began. Robert again slept in the evening, after Shargar came home, and
made up for the time by reading while he sat by his friend. Mrs. Fyvie's
attendance was in requisition only for the hours when he had to be at
lectures. By the greatest economy of means, consisting of what Shargar
brought in by jobbing about the quay and the coach-offices, and what
Robert had from Dr. Anderson for copying his manuscript, they contrived
to procure for Ericson all that he wanted. The shopping of the two boys,
in their utter ignorance of such delicacies as the doctor told them to
get for him, the blunders they made as to the shops at which they were
to be bought, and the consultations they held, especially about the
preparing of the prescribed nutriment, afforded them many an amusing
retrospect in after years. For the house was so full of lodge