looked on a
Vandal. "Cut it out!"

"Stops the action, sir!" said my father, dogmatically.

"Action! But a novel is not a drama."

"No; it is a great deal longer,--twenty times as long, I dare say,"
replied Mr. Caxton, with a sigh.

"Well, sir, well! I think my Discourse upon Knowledge has much to do
with the subject, is vitally essential to the subject; does not stop the
action,--only explains and elucidates the action. And I am astonished,
sir, that you, a scholar, and a cultivator of knowledge--"

"There, there!" cried my father, deprecatingly. "I yield, I yield! What
better could I expect when I set up for a critic? What author ever lived
that did not fly into a passion, even with his own father, if his father
presumed to say, 'Cut out'!"

MRS. CAXTON.--"My dear Austin, I am sure Pisistratus did not mean to
offend you, and I have no doubt he will take your--"

PISISTRATUS (hastily).--"Advice for the future, certainly. I will
quicken the action, and--"

"Go on with the Novel," whispered Roland, looking up from his eternal
account-book. "We have lost L200 by our barley!"

Therewith I plunged my pen into the ink, and my thoughts into the "Fair
Shadowland."

CHAPTER II.

"HALT, cried a voice; and not a little surprised was Leonard when the
stranger who had accosted him the preceding evening got into the chaise.

"Well," said Richard, "I am not the sort of man you expected, eh? Take
time to recover yourself." And with these words Richard drew forth a
book from his pocket, threw himself back, and began to read. Leonard
stole many a glance at the acute, hardy, handsome face of his companion,
and gradually recognized a family likeness to poor John, in whom,
despite age and infirmity, the traces of no common share of physical
beauty were still evident. And, with that quick link in ideas which
mathematical aptitude bestows, the young student at once conjectured
that he saw before him his uncle Richard. He had the discretion,
however, to leave that gentleman free to choose his own time for
introducing himself, and silently revolved the new thoughts produced
by the novelty of his situation. Mr. Richard read with notable
quickness,--sometimes cutting the leaves of the book with his penknife,
sometimes tearing them open with his forefinger, sometimes skipping
whole pages altogether. Thus he galloped to the end of the volume, flung
it aside, lighted his cigar, and began to talk. He put many questions to
Leona