and could not be hastily
decided.

"Of course," said uncle Rutherford, as he bid the captain good-night,
"of course it is out of the question for Theodore to remain in the city
after you and Mrs. Yorke leave, even under the care of the kind woman
with whom you now board; he would not recognize her authority, and
would consider himself free to go any lengths. No, that is not to be
thought of; but we may devise some other plan by which he may have some
schooling and be kept in proper restraint; and he may yet in time prove
a help and comfort to you, Yorke. For your sake I would do much to set
him in the right way; and his teachers think that he has the making of
a clever man in him, if we can but instil something like principle into
his character. Take heart, man."

But the captain went out sadly and hopelessly shaking his gray head,
over which twenty years seemed to have passed since the morning of that
day.

It was not, perhaps, that his affection for his grandson had been so
deeply grieved; for the boy had, until less than a year since, been
quite a stranger to his grandparents, and Theodore was not an
attractive boy even to his own family; and, had the choice been given
to the captain, he would undoubtedly have much preferred to claim Jim
as his own, his open, sunny, joyous nature responding much more readily
to the old man's than did that of the far less amiable Theodore. But he
felt ashamed and disgraced, and as if he could not bear to look any one
of the name of Rutherford or Livingstone in the face, while he still
felt that to our family alone could he turn for help and advice in this
sad business.

"Ye see, you and Mr. Livingstone knows a heap more 'bout wicked ways
an' doin's than me an' Miss Yorke does, Gov'nor," he said to uncle
Rutherford, altogether innocent of any uncomplimentary inference which
might be drawn, "an' so ye'd know the best ways out of 'em. Yes, I says
to myself, says I, if there's enny one knows the ways out of a bad
scrape, it'll be them city born and bred gentlemen; so I come along to
tell ye afore I tole Miss Yorke or nothin'. Mebbe ye could tell me how
to make it a little lighter for her," he added wistfully.

Alas! beyond the promise to think the matter over, and to consider what
was best to be done, his two friends could give him little consolation
to convey to the poor grandmother, who had built so much on the
opportunities offered to the boy who she had hoped and believed would