lattering
resemblance to that. Kaimes Castle with a reasonable extent of land,
which, in his inquiries after farms, had turned up, was his first place
of settlement in this new capacity; and here, for some few months, he
had established himself when John his second child was born. This was
Captain Sterling's first attempt towards a fixed course of life; not
a very wise one, I have understood:--yet on the whole, who, then and
there, could have pointed out to him a wiser?

A fixed course of life and activity he could never attain, or not till
very late; and this doubtless was among the important points of his
destiny, and acted both on his own character and that of those who had
to attend him on his wayfarings.

CHAPTER III. SCHOOLS: LLANBLETHIAN; PARIS; LONDON.

Edward Sterling never shone in farming; indeed I believe he never took
heartily to it, or tried it except in fits. His Bute farm was, at
best, a kind of apology for some far different ideal of a country
establishment which could not be realized; practically a temporary
landing-place from which he could make sallies and excursions in search
of some more generous field of enterprise. Stormy brief efforts at
energetic husbandry, at agricultural improvement and rapid field-labor,
alternated with sudden flights to Dublin, to London, whithersoever any
flush of bright outlook which he could denominate practical, or any
gleam of hope which his impatient ennui could represent as such,
allured him. This latter was often enough the case. In wet hay-times and
harvest-times, the dripping outdoor world, and lounging indoor one, in
the absence of the master, offered far from a satisfactory appearance!
Here was, in fact, a man much imprisoned; haunted, I doubt not, by
demons enough; though ever brisk and brave withal,--iracund, but
cheerfully vigorous, opulent in wise or unwise hope. A fiery energetic
soul consciously and unconsciously storming for deliverance into better
arenas; and this in a restless, rapid, impetuous, rather than in a
strong, silent and deliberate way.

In rainy Bute and the dilapidated Kaimes Castle, it was evident, there
lay no Goshen for such a man. The lease, originally but for some three
years and a half, drawing now to a close, he resolved to quit Bute; had
heard, I know not where, of an eligible cottage without farm attached,
in the pleasant little village of Llanblethian close by Cowbridge in
Glamorganshire; of this he took a lease, and thithe