for notwithstanding his openness, there was a
certain sad coldness about him that restrained Robert from letting out
all the tide of his love. The silence became painful, and he broke it
abruptly.

'What are you going to be, Mr. Ericson?'

'I wish you could tell me, Robert. What would you have me to be? Come
now.'

Robert thought for a moment.

'Weel, ye canna be a minister, Mr. Ericson, 'cause ye dinna believe in
God, ye ken,' he said simply.

'Don't say that, Robert,' Ericson returned, in a tone of pain with which
no displeasure was mingled. 'But you are right. At best I only hope in
God; I don't believe in him.'

'I'm thinkin' there canna be muckle differ atween houp an' faith,' said
Robert. 'Mony a ane 'at says they believe in God has unco little houp o'
onything frae 's han', I'm thinkin'.'

My reader may have observed a little change for the better in Robert's
speech. Dr. Anderson had urged upon him the necessity of being able at
least to speak English; and he had been trying to modify the antique
Saxon dialect they used at Rothieden with the newer and more refined
English. But even when I knew him, he would upon occasion, especially
when the subject was religion or music, fall back into the broadest
Scotch. It was as if his heart could not issue freely by any other gate
than that of his grandmother tongue.

Fearful of having his last remark contradicted--for he had an
instinctive desire that it should lie undisturbed where he had cast it
in the field of Ericson's mind, he hurried to another question.

'What for shouldna ye be a doctor?'

'Now you'll think me a fool, Robert, if I tell you why.'

'Far be it frae me to daur think sic a word, Mr. Ericson!' said Robert
devoutly.

'Well, I'll tell you, whether or not,' returned Ericson. 'I could, I
believe, amputate a living limb with considerable coolness; but put a
knife in a dead body I could not.'

'I think I know what you mean. Then you must be a lawyer.'

'A lawyer! O Lord!' said Ericson.

'Why not?' asked Robert, in some wonderment; for he could not imagine
Ericson acting from mere popular prejudice or fancy.

'Just think of spending one's life in an atmosphere of squabbles.
It's all very well when one gets to be a judge and dispense justice;
but--well, it's not for me. I could not do the best for my clients. And
a lawyer has nothing to do with the kingdom of heaven--only with his
clients. He must be a party-man. He must secure for one so of