liberty of asking _you_ the name of your relative in St. Just? I am
well acquainted with most of the inhabitants of that town."

"Certainly," replied the youth. "The gentleman whom I am going to visit
is my uncle. His name is Donnithorne."

"What! Tom Donnithorne?" exclaimed the old gentleman, in a tone of
surprise, as he darted a keen glance from under his bushy eyebrows at
his companion. "Hah! then from that fact I gather that you are Oliver
Trembath, the young doctor whom he has been expecting the last day or
two. H'm--so old Tom Donnithorne is your uncle, is he?"

The youth in grey did not relish the free and easy, not to say
patronising, tone of his companion, and felt inclined to give a sharp
answer, but he restrained his feelings and replied,--"He is, and you are
correct in your supposition regarding myself. Do you happen to know my
uncle personally?"

"Know him personally!" cried the old gentleman with a sardonic laugh;
"Oh yes, I know him intimately--intimately; some people say he's a very
good fellow."

"I am glad to hear that, for to say truth--"

He paused abruptly.

"Ha! I suppose you were going to say that you have heard a different
account of him--eh?"

"Well, I _was_ going to observe," replied Oliver, with a laugh, "that my
uncle is rather a wild man for his years--addicted to smuggling, I am
told, and somewhat given to the bottle; but it is well known that
tattlers give false reports, and I am delighted to hear that the old boy
is not such a bad fellow after all."

"Humph!" ejaculated the other. "Then you have never seen him, I
suppose?"

"No, never; although I am a Cornishman I have seen little of my native
county, having left it when a little boy--before my uncle came to live
in this part of the country."

"H'm--well, young man, I would advise you to beware of that same uncle
of yours."

"How!" exclaimed the youth in surprise; "did you not tell me just now
that he is a very good fellow?"

"No, sir, I did not. I told you that _some_ people say he is a very
good fellow, but for myself I think him an uncommonly bad man, a man who
has done me great injury in his day--"

"It grieves me to hear you say so," interrupted Oliver, whose ire was
again roused by the tone and manner of his companion.

"A decidedly bad man," continued the old gentleman, not noticing the
interruption, "a thorough rascal, a smuggler, and a drunkard, and--"

"Hold, sir!" cried the youth sternly, as he s