e. "I have no
doubt that it was my fault. Perhaps I was not patient enough with
him; but, indeed, my efforts to rouse him to take exercise, to
practise in arms, and so on, were so ill received, that I felt I
was doing more harm than good."

"I was afraid that it would be so," the other said, regretfully.
"You see, during his later years, his father gave up his time
almost entirely to religious observances; and, consequently, the
lad's life was very dull and monotonous. Constitutionally, he
undoubtedly takes after his father, who, with all his virtues, was
at once indolent and undecided. We have observed, with regret, his
disinclination to bestir himself in any way. Seeing that we, who
were his father's companions, are too old, or too much disheartened,
to be lively companions for him, we had hoped that the talk of one
of spirit, and of his own age, might have roused him to make some
exertions to overcome his disinclination for anything like active
exercise. I think now, however, that we were wrong; that the tonic
was too strong; that he could not but feel that your abundance of
spirits, and life, were too much for him; and that the companion he
needs is one who could, to some extent, sympathize with him, and
who could, perhaps, make more allowance for the manner in which he
has been brought up.

"We do not blame you at all. I am sure that you have done your
best. But it is evident that the contrast between you and himself
has been too strong a one; and that, feeling he cannot hope to
emulate your soldierly activity, he has come to resent it, as a
sort of reflection upon himself."

Desmond was, by no means, sorry at being relieved of the necessity
of paying frequent visits to Saint Germain. In the first place, he
begrudged the time that was taken from his fencing lessons, at
which he had worked enthusiastically; and in the next, he had
felt, after two or three visits, that between himself and the
young king there was really nothing in common. Full of life and
spirits himself, it seemed to him nothing short of disgraceful
that one, who aspired to rule, should take no pains whatever to
fit himself for a throne, or to cultivate qualities that would
render himself popular among a high-spirited people. And, as he
came to understand James more thoroughly, he had found his visits
increasingly irksome, all the more so, as he felt their inutility.

"Thank goodness," he said, to his two friends, when he went home
that day,