over it, looked with
attention into the column containing births, deaths, and marriages. But
in that long and miscellaneous list he could not conjecture the name
which had so excited Mr. Egerton's interest.

"Vexatious!" he muttered; "there is no knowledge which has power more
useful than that of the secrets of men."

He turned as the waiter entered and said that Mr. Hazeldean would be
glad to see him.

As Randal entered the drawing-room, the squire, shaking hands with him,
looked towards the door as if expecting some one else; and his honest
face assumed a blank expression of disappointment, when the door closed,
and he found that Randal was unaccompanied.

"Well," said he, bluntly, "I thought your old schoolfellow, Frank, might
have been with you."

"Have you not seen him yet, sir?"

"No, I came to town this morning; travelled outside the mail; sent
to his barracks, but the young gentleman does not sleep there, has an
apartment of his own; he never told me that. We are a plain family, the
Hazeldeans, young sir; and I hate being kept in the dark,--by my own
son, too."

Randal made no answer, but looked sorrowful. The squire, who had never
before seen his kinsman, had a vague idea that it was not polite to
entertain a stranger, though a connection to himself, with his family
troubles, and so resumed good-naturedly, "I am very glad to make your
acquaintance at last, Mr. Leslie. You know, I hope, that you have good
Hazeldean blood in your veins?"

RANDAL (smiling).--"I am not likely to forget that; it is the boast of
our pedigree."

SQUIRE (heartily).--"Shake hands again on it, my boy. You don't want a
friend, since my grandee of a half-brother has taken you up; but if ever
you should, Hazeldean is not very far from Rood. Can't get on with your
father at all, my lad,--more 's the pity, for I think I could have given
him a hint or two as to the improvement of his property. If he would
plant those ugly commons--larch and fir soon come into profit, sir; and
there are some low lands about Rood that would take mighty kindly to
draining."

RANDAL.--"My poor father lives a life so retired--and you cannot wonder
at it. Fallen trees lie still, and so do fallen families."

SQUIRE.--"Fallen families can get up again, which fallen trees can't."

RANDAL.--"Ah, sir, it often takes the energy of generations to repair
the thriftlessness and extravagance of a single owner."

SQUIRE (his brow lowering).--"That's very true