est a remedy."

"With all the pleasure in life," the young man answered. "But you may
remember that you delivered yourself of precisely the same sentiments a
year and a half ago. And that, fired with the ardour of a chivalrous
obedience, I fled over the face of the European continent in hot
pursuit of poor, dear Dickie Calmady."

"Poor, dear!" ejaculated Honoria.

"Yes, very much poor, dear, through it all," the young man affirmed.
"Breathless, but still obedient, I came up with him at Odessa."

"What was he doing there?" put in the doctor.

Mr. Quayle regarded him not without humour.

"Really, I am not my friend's keeper, though Miss St. Quentin is
pleased to make me a handsome present of that enviable office. And
so--well--I didn't inquire what he was doing. To tell the truth, I had
not much opportunity, for though I found him charming,--yes, charming,
Miss St. Quentin,--I also found him wholly unapproachable regarding
family affairs. When, with a diplomatic ingenuity upon which I cannot
but congratulate myself, I suggested the advisability of a return to
Brockhurst, in the civilest way in the world he showed me the door.
Impertinence is not my _forte_. I am by nature humble-minded. But, I
give you my word, that was a little episode of which I do not crave the
repetition."

Growling to himself, clasping his hands behind his back, John Knott
shifted his position. Then, taken with that desire of clergy-baiting,
which would seem to be inherent in members of the Faculty, he addressed
Julius March.

"Come, now," he said, "your pupil doesn't do you an overwhelming amount
of credit it must be admitted, still you ought to be able to give an
expert's opinion upon the tendencies of his character. How much longer
do you allow him before he grows tired of filling his belly with the
husks the swine eat?"

"God knows, not I," Julius answered sadly, but without rancour. "I
confess to the faithlessness of despair at times. And yet, being his
mother's son, he cannot but tire of it eventually, and when he does so
the revulsion will be final, the restoration complete----"

"He'll die the death of the righteous? Oh yes! I agree there, for
there's fine stuff in him, never doubt that. He'll end well enough.
Only the beginning of that righteous ending, if delayed much longer,
may come a bit too late for the saving of my patient's life
and--reason."

"Do you mean it is as serious as all that?" Ludovic asked with sudden
anxiety