nk of
that curious gleam of deeper insight the poor old mind had displayed in
the attempt to express, blunderingly as it might be, the fact that truth
exceeds our understanding, and yet that we are bound to walk by the
light of understanding. He came, upon the whole, to the conclusion that
some latent faculty of imagination, working in the old man's mind,
combining with the picturesque objects so familiar to his eyes, had
produced in him belief in this curious vision. It was one of those
things that seem to have no reason for coming to pass, no sufficient
cause and no result, for Caius never heard that Morrison had related the
tale to anyone but himself, nor was there any report in the village that
anyone else had seen an unusual object in the sea.

CHAPTER VI.

"FROM HOUR TO HOUR WE RIPE----"

The elder Simpson gradually learned to expend more money upon his son;
it was not that the latter was a spendthrift or that he took to any evil
courses--he simply became a gentleman and had uses for money of which
his father could not, unaided, have conceived. Caius was too virtuous to
desire to spend his father's hardly-gathered stores unnecessarily;
therefore, the last years of his college life in Montreal he did not
come home in summer, but found occupation in that city by which to make
a small income for himself.

In those two years he learned much of medical and surgical lore--this
was of course, for he was a student by nature; but other things that he
learned were, upon the whole, more noteworthy in the development of his
character. He became fastidious as to the fit of his coat and as to the
work of the laundress upon his shirt-fronts. He learned to sit in easy
attitude by gauzily-dressed damsels under sparkling gaslight, and to
curl his fair moustache between his now white fingers as he talked to
them, and yet to moderate the extent of the attention that he paid to
each, not wishing that it should be in excess of that which was due. He
learned to value himself as he was valued--as a rising man, one who
would do well not to throw himself away in marriage. He had a moustache
first, and at last he had a beard. He was a sober young man: as his
father's teaching had been strict, so he was now strict in his rule over
himself. He frequented religious services, going about listening to
popular preachers of all sorts, and critically commenting upon their
sermons to his friends. He was really a very religious and
well-