Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume I.

was concerned-he resolved to return home. His friend Beattie, however, induced him to delay his departure to th

who indeed bustled into the room and out of it, slammed doors and upset chairs in a fashion that might well have excused the exaggeration that converted her into a noun of multitude. A very warm alt

ot clear to me. At all events I will see him to-night, and hear what he has to say to me. I am sure it has no conc

scovered that certain debts which he had believed long settled by the judge were still outstanding against him, Lady Lendrick having interfered to prevent their payment, while she assured the creditors that if they had

agined you were a party to the arrangement, understanding that you were reluctant to bri

with certain melancholy reflections over some shadowy unknown something which had been the cause of his estrangement from his father, but which time and endurance might not impossibly diminish the bitterness of, though with very little hope of leading to a more amicable relation. She would assume, besides, occasionally a kind of companionship in sorrow, and, as though the confession had burst from her unawares, avow that Sir William's temper was more than human nature was called upon to submit to, and that year

en, first opened Lendrick's eyes as to the sincerity and affection of his correspondent, for he

he tried, but could not. After a few minutes he found that his thoughts wandered off from the book and centred on his own concerns, till his head ached with the weary round of those difficulties which came ever back, and back, and back again undiminished, unrelieved, and unsolved. The embarrassments of life are not, like chess problems, to be resolved by a skil

m he remembered in his youth, from the eccentric Lord Bristol, the Bishop of Down, to O'Connell and Shiel. Nor did his own self-estimate, high as it was, make the picture in which he figured less striking, nor less memorable his concluding words, as he said, 'These fellows are all in history, Beattie,-every man of them. There are statues to them in our highways, and men visit the spots that gave them birth; and here am I, second to none of them. Trinity College and the Four Courts will tell you if I speak in vanity; and here am I; and the only question about me is, when I intend to vacate the bench, when it wi

t he wished to sho

, the Viceroy's secretary. It seems that his Excellency, finding all

t was a bright

atified by the post of Hospital Inspector at the Cape being o

did he give?" asked

I don't fancy that the accomplished young gentleman exactly liked the task, but he di

-in wh

he read it. 'Beattie,' said he, 'I have no right to say Tom must refuse this offer; but if he should do so, I will make the document you see there be read in the House, and my name is not William Lendrick if it do not cost them more than they are prepared for. Go now and consult your friend;' it was so he calle

were in town at the moment, that the accounts of his illnes

le to communicate with him,

re tha

ceptance or his refusal is to be his own act, not to b

, with a quivering lip; "there was no need to

ask if you might not be permitted to see him, even for a brief moment; but I was afraid, lest in refusing he might make a reconciliation stil

ick. She was in evening dress, going out, but

saw that I did not or would not apprehend her meaning, and added, 'I mean about this resignation, which, of course, you will advise him to. The Government are real

hing but the offer to

en recovering herself, said, 'And a most h

I have told you almost word for word e

l this, Beattie?" asked Le

nd say, Don't go; or it may be that your readiness to work for your bread should conciliate him; h

Lady Lendrick has int

e in entertaining the project; and cer

ms of affection, I would go anywhere, do anything that he counselled. Try, my dear friend, to bring this about; do yo

ie; "but now let us to bed. It is past two o'clock. Good-night