would I barter such success,
ten thousand times told, for an hour of that high station that comes
by birth alone, independent of all effort,--the heirloom of deeds
chronicled centuries back, whose actors have been dust for ages. That is
real pride," cried he, enthusiastically, "and has no alloy of the petty
vanity that mingles with the sense of a personal triumph."

Traynor hung his head heavily as the youth spoke, and a gloomy
melancholy settled on his features; the sad conviction came home to him
of all his counsels being fruitless, all his teachings in vain; and as
the boy sat wrapped in a wild, dreamy revery of ancestral greatness, the
humble peasant brooded darkly over the troubles such a temperament might
evoke.

"It is agreed, then," cried Massy, suddenly, "that we are to accept of
this great man's bounty, live under his roof, and eat his bread. Well,
I accede,--as well his as another's. Have you seen the home they destine
for us?"

"Yes, it's a real paradise, and in a garden that would beat Adam's
now," exclaimed Traynor; "for there's marble fountains, and statues, and
temples, and grottos in it; and it's as big as a prairie, and as wild as
a wilderness. And, better than all, there's a little pathway leads to
a private stair that goes up into the library of the palace,--a spot
nobody ever enters, and where you may study the whole day long without
hearin' a footstep. All the books is there that ever was written, and
manuscripts without end besides; and the Minister says I'm to have my
own kay, and go in and out whenever I plaze. 'And if there's anything
wantin',' says be, 'just order it on a slip of paper and send it to me,
and you 'll have it at once.' When I asked if I ought to spake to the
librarian himself, he only laughed, and said, 'That's me; but I'm
never there. Take my word for it, Doctor, you 'll have the place to
yourself.'"

He spoke truly. Billy Traynor had it, indeed, to himself. There, the
gray dawn of morning, and the last shadows of evening, ever found him,
seated in one of those deep, cell-like recesses of the windows; the
table, the seats, the very floor littered with volumes which, revelling
in the luxury of wealth, he had accumulated around him. His greedy
avidity for knowledge knew no bounds. The miser's thirst for gold was
weak in comparison with that intense craving that seized upon him.
Historians, critics, satirists, poets, dramatists, metaphysicians, never
came amiss to a mind ben