h to renounce her mission. "The dear child," the friends of
her mother all remembered, had once possessed a temper that only the
peculiar circumstances of her life had chastened, and they had an uneasy
suspicion that it still smouldered beneath the well-bred insolence with
which she had so far received much friendly advice.

By this time--mid-December was nigh--the judge and Gwynne had discussed
many subjects besides the law. Mrs. Leslie, whose hospitable instincts
were too deep to be blighted even by the servant question, had placed a
room at Gwynne's disposal to be used when it rained, or he talked so
late with the judge that the long ride home was not worth while. He
dined with them several times a week, and found both these simple
old-fashioned people delightful. And with Judge Leslie, alone of all his
neighbors, could he discuss the affairs of the great world, get away
from the politics and the small local interests that absorbed every
other man in Rosewater. Moreover, Judge Leslie was well acquainted with
his past career and often manifested a keen desire for details. Gwynne
was not sure that these lapses were good for him, but certainly it was
pleasant, stretched out there by the big fireplace in an old room full
of books, English for the most part, to talk of himself and his
achievements. Isabel rarely referred to his past, never encouraged him
to talk about it. His mother had become as silent as a mummy; old man
Colton might have lost his memory, and for Tom Colton British politics
had no existence.

But Judge Leslie understood and had much sympathy for his
pupil--possibly believed in the virtue of the safety-valve. Certainly
Gwynne invariably went to bed after these long talks content in mind and
body; and the next day he was far too busy to trot out his ego and sit
down with it. And his mind at least was happy in its new sense of
expansion and acquisition, its increasing and developing powers. His
studies had the further effect of moderating the purely personal
viewpoint of the United States that had tormented him, and of enabling
him to withdraw far enough to command glimpses of the New World as a
great abstraction. And his contacts with the strange medley of small
farmers and mechanics, with local politicians in back offices and
saloons, even his acquaintance with the San Franciscans that were
attempting to reclaim that bawdy borough, did not affect the universal
idea he had at last succeeded in focussing.