cage. You were true to
your instincts then, my dear fellow-man,--instincts of space and Heaven.
Courage!--the cage-door will open soon. And now, practically speaking,
I give you this advice in parting: You have a quick and sensitive mind
which you have allowed that strong body of yours to incarcerate and
suppress. Give that mind fair play. Attend to the business of your
calling diligently; the craving for regular work is the healthful
appetite of mind: but in your spare hours cultivate the new ideas which
your talk with men who have been accustomed to cultivate the mind more
than the body has sown within you. Belong to a book-club, and interest
yourself in books. A wise man has said, 'Books widen the present by
adding to it the past and the future.' Seek the company of educated men
and educated women too; and when you are angry with another, reason
with him: don't knock him down; and don't be knocked down yourself by an
enemy much stronger than yourself,--Drink. Do all this, and when I see
you again you will be--"

"Stop, sir,--you will see me again?"

"Yes, if we both live, I promise it."

"When?"

"You see, Tom, we have both of us something in our old selves which we
must work off. You will work off your something by repose, and I must
work off mine, if I can, by moving about. So I am on my travels. May
we both have new selves better than the old selves, when we again shake
hands! For your part try your best, dear Tom, and Heaven prosper you."

"And Heaven bless you!" cried Tom, fervently, with tears rolling
unheeded from his bold blue eyes.

CHAPTER XIV.

THOUGH Kenelm left Luscombe on Tuesday morning, he did not appear at
Neesdale Park till the Wednesday, a little before the dressing-bell for
dinner. His adventures in the interim are not worth repeating. He had
hoped he might fall in again with the minstrel, but he did not.

His portmanteau had arrived, and he heaved a sigh as he cased himself in
a gentleman's evening dress. "Alas! I have soon got back again into my
own skin."

There were several other guests in the house, though not a
large party,--they had been asked with an eye to the approaching
election,--consisting of squires and clergy from remoter parts of the
county. Chief among the guests in rank and importance, and rendered by
the occasion the central object of interest, was George Belvoir.

Kenelm bore his part in this society with a resignation that partook of
repentance.

The first