dly commenced, and George was charmed, if not
with the city of the Sultan, at any rate with the scenery around it.
Here his father appeared in a new light: they were more intimate with
each other than they had been at Jerusalem; they were not now living
in ladies' society, and Sir Lionel by degrees threw off what little
restraint of governorship, what small amount of parental authority he
had hitherto assumed. He seemed anxious to live with his son on terms
of perfect equality; began to talk to him rather as young men talk to
each other than men of ages so very different, and appeared to court
a lack of reverence.

In his ordinary habits of life, and, indeed, in his physical
vivacity, Sir Lionel was very young for his time of life. He never
pleaded his years in bar of any pleasure, and never pleaded them at
all except when desirous of an excuse for escaping something that
was disagreeable. There are subjects on which young men talk freely
with each other, but on which they hesitate to speak to their elders
without restraint. Sir Lionel did his best to banish any such feeling
on the part of his son. Of wine and women, of cards and horses,
of money comforts and money discomforts, he spoke in a manner
which Bertram at first did not like, but which after awhile was not
distasteful to him. There is always some compliment implied when an
old man unbends before a young one, and it is this which makes the
viciousness of old men so dangerous. I do not say that Sir Lionel
purposely tempted his son to vice; but he plainly showed that he
regarded morality in a man to be as thoroughly the peculiar attribute
of a clergyman as a black coat; and that there could be no reason for
other men even to pretend to it when there were no women by to be
respected and deceived.

Bertram certainly liked his father, and was at ease in his company;
but, in spite of this, he was ashamed of him, and was sometimes very
sorrowful. He was young, full of vivacity, and without that strength
of character which should have withstood the charm of Sir Lionel's
manner; but he knew well that he would fain have had in his father
feelings of a very different nature, and he could not but acknowledge
that the severity of his uncle's tone was deserved.

It had been George's intention to stay a week only at Constantinople,
but his father had persuaded him to remain four. He had boasted that
when he returned to England he would be in a position to give back to
his