and the openings for promotion, decided at
once that the experiment should be tried without loss of time. He
desired Tom to bring him ink and paper, and hastily wrote:

'DEAR MR. DOBBS,--You would do me a great kindness by employing this
poor fellow, and bearing with him. I have managed him very ill, but he
would reward any care. Have an eye to him, and put him in
communication with the chaplain. If you can take him, I will write
more at length. If you have heard of my accident, you will excuse more
at present.

'Yours very truly,
'FITZJOCELYN.'

Then arose the question, how Tom was to get to Illershall. He did not
know; and Louis directed his search into the places where the loose
money in his pocket might have been put. When it was found, Tom
scrupled at the proposed half-sovereign. Three-and-fourpence would pay
for his ticket. 'You will want a supper and a bed. Go respectably,
Tom, and keep so. It will be some consolation for the mischief I have
done you!'

'You done me harm!' cried Tom. 'Why, 'tis all along of you that I
ain't a regularly-built scamp!'

'Very irregularly built, whatever you are!' said Louis. But I'll tell
you what you shall do for me,' continued he, with anxious earnestness.
'Do you know the hollow ash-tree that shades over Inglewood stile? It
has a stout sucker, with a honeysuckle grown into it--coming up among
the moss, where the great white vase-shaped funguses grew up in the
autumn.'

'I know him, my Lord,' said Tom, brightening at the detail, given with
all a sick man's vivid remembrance of the out-of-doors world.

'I have fixed my mind on that stick! I think it has a bend at the
root. Will you cut it for me, and trim it up for a walking-stick?'

'That I will, my Lord!'

'Thank you. Bring it up to me between seven and eight in the morning,
if you please; and so I shall see you again--'

Mr. Holdsworth was already entering to close the conversation, which
had been already over-long and exciting, for Louis, sinking back,
mournfully exclaimed, 'The medley of that poor boy's mind is the worst
of my pieces of work. I have made him too refined for one class, and
left him too rough for another--discontented with his station, and too
desultory and insubordinate to rise, nobleness of nature turning to
arrogance, fact and fiction all mixed up together. It would be a study,
if one was not so sorry!'

Neverth