t to say that he was no longer eating the bread of
idleness. "I am up before dawn, mother, and very often have nothing to
eat but a mess of Indian corn steeped in oil, not unlike what Sir Arthur
used to fatten the bullocks with, the whole livelong day; and sometimes
I have to visit places there are no roads to; nearly all the villages
are on the tops of the mountains; but, by good luck, I am never beat by
a long walk, and I do my forty miles a day without minding it.

"If I could only forget the past, dearest mother, or think it nothing
but a dream, I 'd never quarrel with the life I am now leading; for I
have plenty of open air, mountain walking, abundance of time to myself,
and rough fellows to deal with, that amuse me; but when I am tramping
along with my cigar in my mouth, I can't help thinking of long ago,--of
the rides at sunset on the sands, and all the hopes and fancies I used
to bring home with me, after them. Well! it is over now,--just as much
done for as if the time had never been at all; and I suppose, after a
while, I 'll learn to bear it better, and think, as you often told me,
that 'all things are for the best.'

"I feel my own condition more painfully when I come, back here, and have
to sit a whole evening listening to Sam M'Gruder talking about Dolly
Stewart and the plans about their marriage. The poor fellow is so full
of it all that even the important intelligence I have for him he won't
hear, but will say, 'Another time, Tony, another time,--let us chat
about Dolly.' One thing I 'll swear to, she 'll have the honestest
fellow for her husband that ever stepped, and tell her I said so. Sam
would take it very kindly of you if you could get Dolly to agree to
their being married in March.

"It is the only time he can manage a trip to England,--not but, as he
says, whatever time Dolly consents to shall be his time.

"He shows me her letters sometimes, and though he is half wild with
delight at them, I tell you frankly, mother, they would n't satisfy _me_
if I was her lover. She writes more like a creature that was resigned
to a hard lot, than one that was about to marry a man she loved. Sam,
however, does n't seem to take this view of her, and so much the better.

"There was one thing in your last letter that puzzled me, and puzzles me
still. Why did Dolly ask if I was likely to remain here? The way you put
it makes me think that she was deferring the marriage till such time
as I was gone. If I really