e in this was the communication with the adjoining
gallery, which, when the weather was unfavourable, furnished ample
room for his habitual walk. He knew how many strides by the help of his
crutch made a mile, and this was convenient. Moreover, he liked to
look, when alone, on those old portraits of his ancestors, which he
had religiously conserved in their places, preferring to thrust his
Florentine and Venetian masterpieces into bedrooms and parlours,
rather than to dislodge from the gallery the stiff ruffs, doublets, and
farthingales of his predecessors. It was whispered in the house that
the baronet, whenever he had to reprove a tenant or lecture a dependant,
took care to have him brought to his sanctum, through the full length of
this gallery, so that the victim might be duly prepared and awed by the
imposing effect of so stately a journey, and the grave faces of all the
generations of St. John, which could not fail to impress him with the
dignity of the family, and alarm him at the prospect of the injured
frown of its representative. Across this gallery now, following the
steps of the powdered valet, strode young Ardworth, staring now and then
at some portrait more than usually grim, more often wondering why his
boots, that never creaked before, should creak on those particular
boards, and feeling a quiet curiosity, without the least mixture of fear
or awe as to what old Squaretoes intended to say to him. But all feeling
of irreverence ceased when, shown into the baronet's room, and the door
closed, Sir Miles rose with a smile, and cordially shaking his hand,
said, dropping the punctilious courtesy of Mister: "Ardworth, sir, if I
had a little prejudice against you before you came, you have conquered
it. You are a fine, manly, spirited fellow, sir; and you have an old
man's good wishes,--which are no bad beginning to a young man's good
fortune."

The colour rushed over Ardworth's forehead, and a tear sprang to his
eyes. He felt a rising at his throat as he stammered out some not very
audible reply.

"I wished to see you, young gentleman, that I might judge myself what
you would like best, and what would best fit you. Your father is in the
army: what say you to a pair of colours?"

"Oh, Sir Miles, that is my utmost ambition! Anything but law, except the
Church; anything but the Church, except the desk and a counter!"

The baronet, much pleased, gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Ha,
ha! we gentlemen, you se