e, I'm trying to learn
Russian. Father says he made the attempt long ago, but was beaten. I
don't think I shall give in."

"Your father knew Herzen and Bakounine, in the old days. Well, don't
overdo it; don't neglect the body. We must have another talk before
long."

Again Mr. Jacks looked thoughtfully at the keen young face, and his
countenance betrayed a troublous mood.

"How you remind me of my old friend, forty years ago--forty years ago!"

CHAPTER III

A little apart from the village of Ewell, within sight of the noble
trees and broad herbage of Nonsuch Park, and looking southward to the
tilth and pasture of the Downs, stood the house occupied by Mr. Lee
Hannaford. It was just too large to be called a cottage; not quite old
enough to be picturesque; a pleasant enough dwelling, amid its green
garden plot, sheltered on the north side by a dark hedge of yew, and
shut from the quiet road by privet topped with lilac and laburnum. This
day of early summer, fresh after rains, with a clear sky and the sun
wide-gleaming over young leaf and bright blossom, with Nature's perfume
wafted along every alley, about every field and lane, showed the spot
at its best. But it was with no eye to natural beauty that Mr.
Hannaford had chosen this abode; such considerations left him
untouched. He wanted a cheap house not far from London, where his
wife's uncertain health might receive benefit, and where the simplicity
of the surroundings would offer no temptations to casual expense. For
his own part, he was a good deal from home, coming and going as it
suited him; a very small income from capital, and occasional earnings
by contribution to scientific journalism, left slender resources to
Mrs. Hannaford and her daughter after the husband's needs were
supplied. Thus it came about that they gladly ceded a spare room to
Piers Otway, who, having boarded with them during his student time at
Geneva, had at long intervals kept up a correspondence with Mrs.
Hannaford, a lady he admired.

The rooms were indifferently furnished; in part, owing to poverty, and
partly because neither of the ladies cared much for things domestic.
Mr. Hannaford's sanctum alone had character; it was hung about with
lethal weapons of many kinds and many epochs, including a memento of
every important war waged in Europe since the date of Waterloo. A
smoke-grimed rifle from some battlefield was in Hannaford's view a
thing greatly precious; still more, a bayone