ntleman?"

"Humph!" growled my father, mollified but sarcastic; "a pretty
gentleman--a gentleman of sixteen!"

"It is true,"' I continued, without heeding the interruption, "that I
lingered for a moment to read a placard by the way; but if you will take
the trouble, sir, to inquire at the Rectory, you will find that I waited
a quarter of an hour before I could send up your letter."

My father grinned and rubbed his hands. If there was one thing in the
world that aggravated him more than another, it was to find his fire
opposed to ice. Let him, however, succeed in igniting his adversary, and
he was in a good humor directly.

"Come, come, Basil," said he, taking off his spectacles, "I never said
you were not a good lad. Go to your books, boy--go to your books; and
this evening I will examine you in vegetable physiology."

Silently, but not sullenly, I drew a chair to the table, and resumed my
work. We were both satisfied, because each in his heart considered
himself the victor. My father was amused at having irritated me, whereas
I was content because he had, in some sort, withdrawn the expressions
that annoyed me. Hence we both became good-tempered, and, according to
our own tacit fashion, continued during the rest of that morning to be
rather more than usually sociable.

Hours passed thus--hours of quiet study, during which the quick
travelling of a pen or the occasional turning of a page alone disturbed
the silence. The warm sunlight which shone in so greenly through the
vine leaves, stole, inch by inch, round the broken vases in the garden
beyond, and touched their brown mosses with a golden bloom. The patient
shadow on the antique sundial wound its way imperceptibly from left to
right, and long slanting threads of light and shadow pierced in time
between the branches of the poplars. Our mornings were long, for we rose
early and dined late; and while my father paid professional visits, I
devoted my hours to study. It rarely happened that he could thus spend a
whole day among his books. Just as the clock struck four, however, there
came a ring at the bell.

My father settled himself obstinately in his chair.

"If that's a gratis patient," said he, between his teeth, "I'll not
stir. From eight to ten are their hours, confound them!"

"If you please, sir," said Mary, peeping in, "if you please, sir, it's a
gentleman."

"A stranger?" asked my father.

Mary nodded, put her hand to her mouth, and burst into an