nour."

"I'll be honest enough to own I have no claim to the credit," said
Gerard. "I am but a lazy chiel."

They entered the cottage, where a hale old woman greeted them.

"She is too old to be my wife, and too young to be my mother," said
Gerard smiling; "but she is a good creature, and has looked after me
many a long day. Come, dame," he said, "thou'lt bring us a cup of tea;
'tis a good evening beverage," he added, turning to Egremont. "and what
I ever take at this time. And if you care to light a pipe, you will find
a companion."

"I have renounced tobacco," said Egremont; "tobacco is the tomb of
love," and they entered a neatly-furnished chamber, that had that
habitable look which the best room of a farmhouse too often wants.
Instead of the cast-off furniture of other establishments, at the same
time dingy and tawdry, mock rosewood chairs and tarnished mahogany
tables, there was an oaken table, some cottage chairs made of beech
wood, and a Dutch clock. But what surprised Egremont was the appearance
of several shelves well lined with volumes. Their contents too on closer
inspection were very remarkable. They indicated a student of a high
order. Egremont read the titles of works which he only knew by fame, but
which treated of the loftiest and most subtle questions of social
and political philosophy. As he was throwing his eye over them, his
companion said, "Ah! I see you think me as great a scholar as I am a
gardener: but with as little justice; these hooks are not mine."

"To whomsoever they belong," said Egremont, "if we are to judge from his
collection, he has a tolerably strong head."

"Ay, ay," said Gerard, "the world will hear of him yet, though he
was only a workman, and the son of a workman. He has not been at your
schools and your colleges, but he can write his mother tongue, as
Shakespeare and Cobbett wrote it; and you must do that, if you wish to
influence the people."

"And might I ask his name," said Egremont.

"Stephen Morley, my friend."

"The person I saw with you at Marney Abbey?"

"The same."

"And he lives with you?"

"Why, we kept house together, if you could call it so. Stephen does not
give much trouble in that way. He only drinks water and only eats herbs
and fruits. He is the gardener," added Gerard, smiling. "I don't know
how we shall fare when he leaves me."

"And is he going to leave you?"

"Why in a manner he has gone. He has taken a cottage about a quarter of
a mile up