slaughtered like Caifres,
red men, or any other savages, for whom we bait with a missionary
and whom we impale on a bayonet. But I regard my lake as a politic
community, under the protection of the law, and leave its denizens
to devour each other, as Europeans, fishes, and other cold-blooded
creatures wisely do, in order to check the overgrowth of population. To
fatten one pike it takes a great many minnows. Naturally I support the
vested rights of pike. I have been a lawyer."

It would be in vain to describe the manner in which Mr. Darrell vented
this or similar remarks of mocking irony or sarcastic spleen. It was
not bitter nor sneering, but in his usual mellifluous level tone and
passionless tranquillity.

The breakfast was just over as a groom passed in front of the windows
with a led horse. "I am going to leave you, Lionel," said the host, "to
make--friends with Mr. Fairthorn, and I thus complete, according to
my own original intention, the sentence which he diverted astray." He
passed across the hall to the open house-door, and stood by the horse,
stroking its neck and giving some directions to the groom. Lionel
and Fairthorn followed to the threshold, and the beauty of the horse
provoked the boy's admiration: it was a dark muzzled brown, of that
fine old-fashioned breed of English roadster which is now so seldom
seen,--showy, bownecked, long-tailed, stumbling, reedy hybrids, born
of bad barbs, ill-mated, having mainly supplied their place. This was,
indeed, a horse of great power, immense girth of loin, high shoulder,
broad hoof; and such a head! the ear, the frontal, the nostril! you
seldom see a human physiognomy half so intelligent, half so expressive
of that high spirit and sweet generous temper, which, when united,
constitute the ideal of thorough-breeding, whether in horse or man. The
English rider was in harmony with the English steed. Darrell at this
moment was resting his arm lightly on the animal's shoulder, and his
head still uncovered. It has been said before that he was, of imposing
presence; the striking attribute of his person, indeed, was that of
unconscious grandeur; yet, though above the ordinary height, he was not
very tall-five feet eleven at the utmost-and far from being very erect.
On the contrary, there was that habitual bend in his proud neck which
men who meditate much and live alone almost invariably contract. But
there was, to use an expression common with our older writers, that
"gr