hey are not bad," he said. "I became a
connoisseur in tobacco when I was in India. I hope I am not interfering
with your business in coming along with you?"

"Not at all," I answered "I am very glad to have your company."

"I'll tell you a secret," said my companion. "This is the first time
that I have been outside the grounds since we have been down here."

"And your sister?"

"She has never been out, either," he answered. "I have given the
governor the slip to-day, but he wouldn't half like it if he knew. It's
a whim of his that we should keep ourselves entirely to ourselves. At
least, some people would call it a whim, for my own part I have reason
to believe that he has solid grounds for all that he does--though
perhaps in this matter he may be a little too exacting."

"You must surely find it very lonely," said I. "Couldn't you manage to
slip down at times and have a smoke with me? That house over yonder is
Branksome."

"Indeed, you are very kind," he answered, with sparkling eyes. "I should
dearly like to run over now and again. With the exception of Israel
Stakes, our old coachman and gardener, I have not a soul that I can
speak to."

"And your sister--she must feel it even more," said I, thinking in my
heart that my new acquaintance made rather too much of his own troubles
and too little of those of his companion.

"Yes; poor Gabriel feels it, no doubt," he answered carelessly, "but
it's a more unnatural thing for a young man of my age to be cooped up in
this way than for a woman. Look at me, now. I am three-and-twenty next
March, and yet I have never been to a university, nor to a school for
that matter. I am as complete an ignoramus as any of these clodhoppers.
It seems strange to you, no doubt, and yet it is so. Now, don't you
think I deserve a better fate?"

He stopped as he spoke, and faced round to me, throwing his palms
forward in appeal.

As I looked at him, with the sun shining upon his face, he certainly did
seem a strange bird to be cooped up in such a cage. Tall and muscular,
with a keen, dark face, and sharp, finely cut features, he might have
stepped out of a canvas of Murillo or Velasquez. There were latent
energy and power in his firm-set mouth, his square eyebrows, and the
whole pose of his elastic, well-knit figure.

"There is the learning to be got from books and the learning to be got
from experience," said I sententiously. "If you have less of your share
of the one, perhaps you