amusement. The sky is just clouded
enough for sport. What fly do you use?"

"To say truth, I doubt if the stream has much to tempt me in the way of
trout, and I prefer rambling about the lanes and by-paths to

"'The noiseless angler's solitary stand.'

"I am an indefatigable walker, and the home scenery round the place has
many charms for me. Besides," added Kenelm, feeling conscious that he
ought to find some more plausible excuse than the charms of home scenery
for locating himself long in Cromwell Lodge, "besides, I intend to
devote myself a good deal to reading. I have been very idle of late, and
the solitude of this place must be favourable to study."

"You are not intended, I presume, for any of the learned professions?"

"The learned professions," replied Kenelm, "is an invidious form of
speech that we are doing our best to eradicate from the language.
All professions now-a-days are to have much about the same amount of
learning. The learning of the military profession is to be levelled
upwards, the learning of the scholastic to be levelled downwards.
Cabinet ministers sneer at the uses of Greek and Latin. And even
such masculine studies as Law and Medicine are to be adapted to the
measurements of taste and propriety in colleges for young ladies. No,
I am not intended for any profession; but still an ignorant man like
myself may not be the worse for a little book-reading now and then."

"You seem to be badly provided with books here," said the vicar,
glancing round the room, in which, on a table in the corner, lay
half-a-dozen old-looking volumes, evidently belonging not to the lodger
but to the landlord. "But, as I before said, my library is at your
service. What branch of reading do you prefer?"

Kenelm was, and looked, puzzled. But after a pause he answered:

"The more remote it be from the present day, the better for me. You said
your collection was rich in mediaeval literature. But the Middle
Ages are so copied by the modern Goths, that I might as well read
translations of Chaucer or take lodgings in Wardour Street. If you have
any books about the manners and habits of those who, according to
the newest idea in science, were our semi-human progenitors in the
transition state between a marine animal and a gorilla, I should be very
much edified by the loan."

"Alas," said Mr. Emlyn, laughing, "no such books have been left to us."

"No such books? You must be mistaken. There must be plenty of them