, bright, joyous, and affectionate as ever.
It was the same spirit, although its flights were bolder and more
daring--the same mind, but its workings more powerful and more free.
The one had placed his ambition so high, he scarcely dared to hope; the
other had already tasted some of the enjoyments of success--life had
even already shed around him some of its fascinations, and quickened the
ardour of his temper. A winner in the race of intellect, he experienced
that thrilling ecstasy which acknowledged superiority confers; he knew
what it was to feel the mastery over others, and, even now, the flame
of ambition was lighted in his heart, and its warm glow tingled in his
veins and throbbed in every pulse. In vain should they who knew him
once, seek for the timid, bashful boy, that scarcely dared to make an
effort from very dread of failure. His flashing eye and haughty brow
told of victory; still around his handsome mouth the laughing smile of
happy youth showed that no ungenerous feeling, no unworthy pride, had
yet mingled with his nature.

"They tell me you have swept the University of its prizes, Herbert--is
not this so?" said Mark, as he leaned his arm affectionately on his
shoulder.

"You would think but poorly of my triumphs, Mark," replied Herbert, with
a smile. "The lists I fight in, peril not life or limb."

"Still, there is honour in the game," said Mark. "Wherever there is
success on one side, and failure on the other--wherever there is hope to
win, and dread to lose--there, the ambition is never unworthy."

"But what of you, Mark? Tell me of yourself. Have you left a buck in
the glen, or is there a stray grouse on the mountain? What have you been
doing since we met?"

Mark coloured and looked confused, when Kate, coming to the rescue,
replied--

"How can you ask such a question, Herbert? What variety does life afford
in this quiet valley? Is it not the very test of our happiness, that we
can take no note of time? But here comes my uncle."

Herbert turned at the words, and rushed to meet the old man.

"Have you won baith, Herbert," cried he--"baith premiums? Then I
must gie you twa hands, my dear boy," said he, pressing him in a fond
embrace. "Were the competitors able ones? Was the victory a hard one?
Tell me all, every thing about it."

And the youth, with bent down head and rapid utterance, related, in a
low voice, the event of his examination.

"Go on, go on," said Sir Archy M'Nab, aloud--"tell m