somehow, for there were fishing and
shooting, and adventure of one sort and another, and the lighter things,
such as singing and the telling of tales, as the boatmen rowed the long
river.

"We talked of many things as we travelled, and I was glad to listen to
the governor, for he had seen and read much. It was clear he liked
to have us hang upon his tales and his grand speeches, which seemed a
little large in the mouth; and his nephew, who had a mind for raillery,
was now and again guilty of some witty impertinence; but this was hard
to bring home to him, for he could assume a fine childlike look when he
pleased, confusing to his accusers. Towards the last he grew bolder,
and said many a biting thing to both the governor and myself, which more
than once turned his sister's face pale with apprehension, for she had a
nice sense of kindness. Whenever the talk was at all general, it was his
delight to turn one against the other. Though I was wary, and the girl
understood his game, at last he had his way.

"I knew Shakespeare and the Bible very well, and, like most bookish
young men, phrase and motto were much on my tongue, though not always
given forth. One evening, as we drew to the camp-fire, a deer broke from
the woods and ran straight through the little circle we were making, and
disappeared in the bushes by the riverside. Someone ran for a rifle; but
the governor forbade, adding, with an air, a phrase with philosophical
point. I, proud of the chance to show I was not a mere backwoodsman
at such a sport, capped his aphorism with a line from Shakespeare's
Cymbeline.

"'Tut, tut!' said the governor smartly; 'you haven't it well, Mr.
Fawdor; it goes this way,' and he went on to set me right. His nephew
at that stepped in, and, with a little disdainful laugh at me, made some
galling gibe at my 'distinguished learning.' I might have known better
than to let it pique me, but I spoke up again, though respectfully
enough, that I was not wrong. It appeared to me all at once as if some
principle were at stake, as if I were the champion of our Shakespeare;
so will vanity delude us.

"The governor--I can see it as if it were yesterday--seemed to go like
ice, for he loved to be thought infallible in all such things as well as
in great business affairs, and his nephew was there to give an edge to
the matter. He said, curtly, that I would probably come on better in the
world if I were more exact and less cock-a-hoop with myself.