llows the path
which winds through the furze and fern along the ridge. Their tutor had
been unable to find lodgings in the village; and, while the two young
men lived on one extremity of the sweep we have been describing, Mr.
Carlton, who was not above three years older than they, had planted
himself at a farmhouse upon the other. Besides, the farmhouse suited
him better, as being nearer to a hamlet which he was serving during the
Vacation.

"I don't think you like Carlton as well as I do," said Reding to
Sheffield, as they lay on the green sward with some lighter classic in
their hands, waiting for dinner, and watching their friend as he
approached them from his lodgings. "He is to me so taking a man; so
equable, so gentle, so considerate--he brings people together, and fills
them with confidence in himself and friendly feeling towards each other,
more than any person I know."

"You are wrong," said Sheffield, "if you think I don't value him
extremely, and love him too; it's impossible not to love him. But he's
not the person quite to get influence over me."

"He's too much of an Anglican for you," said Reding.

"Not at all," said Sheffield, "except indirectly. My quarrel with him
is, that he has many original thoughts, and holds many profound truths
in detail, but is quite unable to see how they lie to each other, and
equally unable to draw consequences. He never sees a truth until he
touches it; he is ever groping and feeling, and, as in hide-and-seek,
continually burns without discovering. I know there are ten thousand
persons who cannot see an inch before their nose, and who can
comfortably digest contradictions; but Carlton is really a clever man;
he is no common thinker; this makes it so provoking. When I write an
essay for him--I know I write obscurely, and often do not bring out the
sequence of my ideas in due order, but, so it is--he is sure to cut out
the very thought or statement on which I especially pride myself, on
which the whole argument rests, which binds every part together; and he
coolly tells me that it is extravagant or far-fetched--not seeing that
by leaving it out he has made nonsense of the rest. He is a man to rob
an arch of its keystone, and then quietly to build his house upon it."

"Ah, your old failing again," said Reding; "a craving after views. Now,
what I like in Carlton, is that repose of his;--always saying enough,
never too much; never boring you, never taxing you; always practic