n should have failed to recognize
him when he first appeared in view. He had gone away a backward lad of
seventeen; he returned a young man of twenty. His slim figure had now
acquired strength and grace, and had increased in stature to the medium
height. The small regular features, which he was supposed to have
inherited from his mother, were rounded and filled out, without having
lost their remarkable delicacy of form. His beard was still in its
infancy; and nascent lines of whisker traced their modest way sparely
down his cheeks. His gentle, wandering brown eyes would have looked to
better advantage in a woman's face--they wanted spirit and firmness to
fit them for the face of a man. His hands had the same wandering habit
as his eyes; they were constantly changing from one position to another,
constantly twisting and turning any little stray thing they could
pick up. He was undeniably handsome, graceful, well-bred--but no close
observer could look at him without suspecting that the stout old family
stock had begun to wear out in the later generations, and that Mr.
Francis Clare had more in him of the shadow of his ancestors than of the
substance.

When the astonishment caused by his appearance had partially subsided,
a search was instituted for the missing report. It was found in the
remotest recesses of Mr. Vanstone's capacious pocket, and was read by
that gentleman on the spot.

The plain facts, as stated by the engineer, were briefly these: Frank
was not possessed of the necessary abilities to fit him for his new
calling; and it was useless to waste time by keeping him any longer in
an employment for which he had no vocation. This, after three years'
trial, being the conviction on both sides, the master had thought it the
most straightforward course for the pupil to go home and candidly place
results before his father and his friends. In some other pursuit, for
which he was more fit, and in which he could feel an interest, he would
no doubt display the industry and perseverance which he had been
too much discouraged to practice in the profession that he had now
abandoned. Personally, he was liked by all who knew him; and his future
prosperity was heartily desired by the many friends whom he had made in
the North. Such was the substance of the report, and so it came to an
end.

Many men would have thought the engineer's statement rather too
carefully worded; and, suspecting him of trying to make the best of
a ba