ne, he entreated me to postpone our journey
for a day; he and Janet had some appointment. Here was given me a noble
cause and matter I need not shrink from speaking of. I lashed Temple in
my aunt's presence with a rod of real eloquence that astonished her, and
him, and myself too; and as he had a sense of guilt not quite explicable
in his mind, he consented to bear what was in reality my burden; for
Julia had distinguished me and not him with all the signs of affection,
and of the two I had the more thoroughly forgotten her; I believe Temple
was first in toasting her at Squire Gregory's table. There is nothing
like a pent-up secret of the heart for accumulating powers of speech; I
mean in youth. The mental distilling process sets in later, and then
you have irony instead of eloquence. From brooding on my father, and not
daring to mention his name lest I should hear evil of it, my
thoughts were a proud family, proud of their origin, proud of their
isolation,--and not to be able to divine them was for the world to
confess itself basely beneath their level. But, when they did pour out,
they were tremendous, as Temple found. This oratorical display of
mine gave me an ascendancy over him. He adored eloquence, not to say
grandiloquence: he was the son of a barrister. 'Let 's go and see her
at once, Richie,' he said of Julia. 'I 'm ready to be off as soon as you
like; I'm ready to do anything that will please you'; which was
untrue, but it was useless to tell him so. I sighed at my sad gift of
penetration, and tossed the fresh example of it into the treasury of
vanity.

'Temple,' said I, dissembling a little; 'I tell you candidly: you won't
please me by doing anything disagreeable to you. A dog pulled by the
collar is not much of a companion. I start for Julia to-morrow before
daylight. If you like your bed best, stop there; and mind you amuse
Janet for me duing my absence.'

'I'm not going to let any one make comparisons between us,' Temple
muttered.

He dropped dozens of similar remarks, and sometimes talked downright
flattery, I had so deeply impressed him.

We breakfasted by candle-light, and rode away on a frosty foggy morning,
keeping our groom fifty yards to the rear, a laughable sight, with both
his coat-pockets bulging, a couple of Riversley turnover pasties in one,
and a bottle of champagne in the other, for our lunch on the road. Now
and then, when near him, we galloped for the fun of seeing him nurse
the bottl