omplexion--both remarkable boys.

Reginald, Sir Charles's favorite, was a wonderful boy for riding,
running, talking; and had a downright genius for melody; he whistled to
the admiration of the village, and latterly he practiced the fiddle in
woods and under hedges, being aided and abetted therein by a gypsy boy
whom he loved, and who, indeed, provided the instrument.

He rode with Sir Charles, and rather liked him; his brother he never
noticed, except to tease him. Lady Bassett he admired, and almost loved
her while she was in the act of playing him undeniable melodies. But he
liked his nurse Meyrick better, on the whole; she flattered him more,
and was more uniformly subservient.

With these two exceptions he despised the whole race of women, and
affected male society only, especially of grooms, stable-boys, and
gypsies; these last welcomed him to their tents, and almost prostrated
themselves before him, so dazzled were they by his beauty and his
color. It is believed they suspected him of having gypsy blood in his
veins. They let him into their tents, and even into some of their
secrets, and he promised them they should have it all their own way as
soon as he was Sir Reginald; he had outgrown his original theory that
he was to be Sir Charles on his father's death.

He hated in-doors; when fixed by command to a book, would beg hard to
be allowed to take it into the sun; and at night would open his window
and poke his black head out to wash in the moonshine, as he said.

He despised ladies and gentlemen, said they were all affected fools,
and gave imitations of all his father's guests to prove it; and so keen
was this child of nature's eye for affectation that very often his
disapproving parents were obliged to confess the imp had seen with his
fresh eye defects custom had made them overlook, or the solid good
qualities that lay beneath had overbalanced.

Now all this may appear amusing and eccentric, and so on, to strangers;
but after the first hundred laughs or so with which paternal indulgence
dismisses the faults of childhood, Sir Charles became very grave.

The boy was his darling and his pride. He was ambitious for him. He
earnestly desired to solve for him a problem which is as impossible as
squaring the circle, viz., how to transmit our experience to our
children. The years and the health he had wasted before he knew Bella
Bruce, these he resolved his successor should not waste. He looked
higher for this