intense curiosity which comes
of living estranged from all society.

"Charley will treat you to a bottle of Burgundy, Har-court," said
Glencore, as they drew round the fire; "he keeps the cellar key."

"Let us have two, Charley," said Harcourt, as the boy arose to leave the
room, "and take care that you carry them steadily."

The boy stood for a second and looked at his father, as if
interrogating, and then a sudden flush suffused his face as Glencore
made a gesture with his hand for him to go.

"You don't perceive how you touched him to the quick there, Harcourt?
You talked to him as to how he should carry the wine; he thought that
office menial and beneath him, and he looked at me to know what he
should do."

"What a fool you have made of the boy!" said Harcourt, bluntly. "By
Jove! it was time I should come here!"

When the boy came back he was followed by the old butler, carefully
carrying in a small wicker contrivance, _Hibernice_ called a cooper,
three cobwebbed and well-crusted bottles.

"Now, Charley," said Jarcourt, gayly, "if you want to see a man
thoroughly happy, just step up to my room and fetch me a small leather
sack you 'll find there of tobacco, and on the dressing-table you 'll
see my meerschaum pipe; be cautious with it, for it belonged to no less
a man than Poniatowski, the poor fellow who died at Leipsic."

The lad stood again irresolute and confused, when a signal from his
father motioned him away to acquit the errand.

"Thank you," said Harcourt, as he re-entered; "you see I am not vain of
my meerschaum without reason. The carving of that bull is a work of real
art; and if you were a connoisseur in such matters, you 'd say the color
was perfect. Have you given up smoking, Glencore?--you used to be fond
of a weed."

"I care but little for it," said Glencore, sighing.

"Take to it again, my dear fellow, if only that it is a bond 'tween
yourself and every one who whiffs his cloud. There are wonderfully few
habits--I was going to say enjoyments, and I might say so, but I 'll
call them habits--that consort so well with every condition and every
circumstance of life, that become the prince and the peasant, suit the
garden of the palace and the red watch-fire of the bivouac, relieve
the weary hours of a calm at sea, or refresh the tired hunter in the
prairies."

"You must tell Charley some of your adventures in the West.--The Colonel
has passed two years in the Rocky Mountains," said Glenco