id Glenalmond. "But I think we do it. Your
father, for instance."

"You think I have punished him?" cried Archie.

Lord Glenalmond bowed his head.

"I think I have," said Archie. "And the worst is, I think he feels it!
How much, who can tell, with such a being? But I think he does."

"And I am sure of it," said Glenalmond.

"Has he spoken to you, then?" cried Archie.

"O no," replied the judge.

"I tell you honestly," said Archie, "I want to make it up to him. I
will go, I have already pledged myself to go, to Hermiston. That was to
him. And now I pledge myself to you, in the sight of God, that I will
close my mouth on capital punishment and all other subjects where our
views may clash, for--how long shall I say? when shall I have sense
enough?--ten years. Is that well?"

"It is well," said my lord.

"As far as it goes," said Archie. "It is enough as regards myself, it is
to lay down enough of my conceit. But as regards him, whom I have
publicly insulted? What am I to do to him? How do you pay attentions to
a--an Alp like that?"

"Only in one way," replied Glenalmond. "Only by obedience, punctual,
prompt, and scrupulous."

"And I promise that he shall have it," answered Archie. "I offer you my
hand in pledge of it."

"And I take your hand as a solemnity," replied the judge. "God bless
you, my dear, and enable you to keep your promise. God guide you in the
true way, and spare your days, and preserve to you your honest heart."
At that, he kissed the young man upon the forehead in a gracious,
distant, antiquated way; and instantly launched, with a marked change of
voice, into another subject. "And now, let us replenish the tankard; and
I believe, if you will try my Cheddar again, you would find you had a
better appetite. The Court has spoken, and the case is dismissed."

"No, there is one thing I must say," cried Archie. "I must say it in
justice to himself. I know--I believe faithfully, slavishly, after our
talk--he will never ask me anything unjust. I am proud to feel it, that
we have that much in common, I am proud to say it to you."

The judge, with shining eyes, raised his tankard. "And I think perhaps
that we might permit ourselves a toast," said he. "I should like to
propose the health of a man very different from me and very much my
superior--a man from whom I have often differed, who has often (in the
trivial expression) rubbed me the wrong way, but whom I have never
ceased to respect and, I may