The Mark Of Cain

olly unacquainted with novels of adventure, and he based his conduct, as much as possible, on what he could remember in these "authorities." For example, h

the up-train. That was all he knew. The gentleman, if his opinion were asked, was "a scaly varmint." On inquiry, Maitland found that this wide moral generalization was based on the limited pour-boire which Mr. Lithgow had presented to his chari

ed Margaret and her mysterious friend to Taunton. This official had seen t

tland was not cast by Nature for the part. He was too scrupulous and too shy. He detested asking guards, and porters, and station-masters, and people in refreshment-rooms if they remembered having seen, yesterday, a gentleman in a fur coat travelling with a young lady, of whom he felt that he

and very nervous) appears on the same route, asking anxious questions about the wayfarer in the notable coat (bearskin, it seemed to have been) and about the interesting young lady. Clearly, the pair were the fond fugitives of Love; while t

dy's guardian, and that the gentleman in the fur coat was (he had every reason to believe) a forger and a miscreant, he would not have been believed. His opinion would, not un

and uncommunicative, pretending that their attention was engaged in their hospitable duties. Soup it was their business to minister to travellers, not private information. They had seen the gentleman and lady. Very attentive to her he seemed. Y

a reply in the negative before leaving Tiverton. Here, then, was a check. If the ticket-collector was to be credited, the objects of his search had reached Westbourne Park, where their tickets had been taken. There, ho

ustle of passengers, who skirmish for their luggage under inadequate lights, no one remembered having seen either of the persons whom Maitland described. There remained the chance of finding

by had not driven him, as it were, out of Oxford, by urging him to acquire a wider knowledge of humanity, and to expand his character by intercourse with every variety of our fallen species, Maitland felt that he might now be vegetating in an existence peaceful, if not well satisfied. "Adventures are to the adventurous." It is a hard thing when they have to be achieved by a champion who is not adventurous at all. If he had not given up his own judgment to

acity of his old tutor was unshaken. Bielby had not been responsible for the details of the methods by which his pupil was trying to expand his character. Lastl

. He jumped into a hansom, and said, "Gatien's." Past Worcester, up Carfax, down the High Street, they struggled through the snow; a

g gentlemen 'as a bonfire on, and they're a lark

e energetically piling up a huge Alp of snow against the door of the Master's lodge. Meanwhile, another band had carried into the quad all the light tables and cane chairs from a

ith any number of decorative epithets, according to the taste and fancy of the speaker. He did not think he could identify any of the rioters, and he was not certain that they would not carry him to his room, and there screw him up, according to precedent. Maitland had too much sense of personal dignity to face the idea of owing his escape from his chambers to the resources of civilization at the command of the college blacksmith. He, therefore, af

s if the knocking had been done

his degree, gone to town, and practised with singular success at the Chancery Bar. But on some sudden disgust or disappointment, he threw up his practice, returned to College, and there lived a retired life among his "br

hought, from the way in which you knocked, that you were some o

were as likely to "draw" him as boys who hunt a hare are likely

. His broad, bald, red face, ending in an auburn spade-shaped beard, wore the air of content. Around him were old books that had belonged to famous stud

contrived, in the task of developing his own human nature, to become involv

le riot in quad," he said, a

boys, and so will young men. I believe our Torpid

ic howl from without, an

ey will hear of this from the Provost But what brings you here,

important matter. The fact is, to begin at the beginning of a long s

or lover-like announcement,

nt of it-I hope, Maitland, a happy omen! A pleasant woman of the world, one who can take her own part in society, and your part, too, a little-if you w

mething, and not the right thing. He flushed all over as

lting of the oracle a little difficult. "The fact is, that's just what I want

grave, while his voice had not yet lost its humorous tone. "She ha

land. "I'm afraid she has been run away with, th

t and conspire nowadays, if ever they did, which probably they didn't! And who are the young lady

" said Maitland, blushing painfully.

me altogether! I'm sure I beg your

ame I was told," muttered Bielby)-"and her father

profession, wh

ropist; "but when I knew him he had left the sea, and was,

t's

sailors and people of tha

ne who saw him could doubt that his silence arose from

He was clearly trying to hope that the most undesirable prospective father-in-law described

his death yesterd

it su

habits, and he was discovered dead in one of the carts

nto a significant silence. "Maitland," he said at last, "how did you come to be acquainted with these pe

d you rather seemed to approve of it. The tavern in Chelsea, if you remember, where I was tryin

his tone. "I am rather busy this evening. I think you had better think no more abo

as a scholar of the Cambridge school, and drank beer. Maitland knew his friend and mentor too well to try to prolong the conversation, and withdrew to his bleak college room, where a

e about trying to become more human, and taken that infern

d hospitalities of refreshment-rooms, on the sandwich and the bun. Now he felt faint as well as weary; but, rummaging amidst his cupboards, he could find no provisions more tempting and nutritious than a box o

d to answer a note, on philanthropic b

for that matter, he went on tumbling and tossing during the greater part of the night. About five o'clock he fell into a sleep full of dreams, only to be awakene

self in a night-mare. Through the slowly broadening winter dawn, in snatches of sleep that lasted, or seemed to last, fi