uld hold in no longer. "And is this what you've been
bothering the life half out of me for, for the last hour?"

"Well, I thought you ought to look at it in that light, momma."

"Well, Boyne," said his mother, "sometimes I think you're almost a
fool!" and she turned her back upon her son and left him.

Boyne's place in the Kenton family, for which he continued to have
the highest regard, became a little less difficult, a little less
incompatible with his self-respect as time went on. His spirit, which
had lagged a little after his body in stature, began, as his father
said, to catch up. He no longer nourished it so exclusively upon
heroical romance as he had during the past year, and after his return
to Tuskingum he went into his brother Richard's once, and manifested a
certain curiosity in the study of the law. He read Blackstone, and could
give a fair account of his impressions of English law to his father.
He had quite outlived the period of entomological research, and he
presented his collections of insects (somewhat moth-eaten) to his
nephew, on whom he also bestowed his postage-stamp album; Mary Kenton
accepted them in trust, the nephew being of yet too tender years for
their care. In the preoccupations of his immediate family with Ellen's
engagement, Boyne became rather close friends with his sister-in-law,
and there were times when he was tempted to submit to her judgment the
question whether the young Queen of Holland did not really beckon to him
that day. But pending the hour when he foresaw that Lottie should come
out with the whole story, in some instant of excitement, Boyne had not
quite the heart to speak of his experience. It assumed more and more
respectability with him, and lost that squalor which had once put him to
shame while it was yet new. He thought that Mary might be reasoned into
regarding him as the hero of an adventure, but he is still hesitating
whether to confide in her. In the meantime she knows all about it. Mary
and Richard both approved of Ellen's choice, though they are somewhat
puzzled to make out just what Mr. Breckon's religion is, and what his
relations to his charge in New York may be. These do not seem to them
quite pastoral, and he himself shares their uncertainty. But since his
flock does not include Mrs. Rasmith and her daughter, he is content to
let the question remain in abeyance. The Rasmiths are settled in Rome
with an apparent permanency which they have not known elsewher