on way--there is nothing aristocratic about him."
Old Rufus looked up and wagged his tail humbly. Presently she went on
to talk about her uncle, and contrived to tell me a great deal in a
very few words. I learnt that he was the last male representative of an
old family, who had long held the small estate here; that after a
distinguished Oxford career, he had met with a serious accident that
had made him a permanent invalid. That he had settled down here, not
expecting to live more than a few years, and that he was now over
seventy; it had been the quietest of lives, she said, and a very happy
one, too, in spite of his disabilities. He read a great deal, and
interested himself in local affairs, but sometimes for weeks together
could do nothing. I gathered that she was his only surviving relation,
and had lived with him from her childhood. "You will think," she added,
laughing, "that he is the kind of person who is shown by his friends as
a wonderful old man, and who turns out to be a person like the
patriarch Casby, in Little Dorrit, whose sanctity, like Samson's,
depended entirely upon the length of his hair. But he is not in the
least like that, and I will leave you to find out for yourself whether
he is wonderful or not."

There was a touch of masculine irony and humour about this that took my
fancy; and we went to the house, Miss ---- saying that two new persons
in one afternoon would be rather a strain for her uncle, much as he
would enjoy it, and that his enjoyment must be severely limited. "His
illness," she said, "is an obscure one; it is a want of adequate
nervous force: the doctors give it names, but don't seem to be able to
cure or relieve it; he is strong, physically and mentally, but the
least over-exertion or over-strain knocks him up; it is as if virtue
went out of him; though a partial niece may say that he has a plentiful
stock of the material."

We went in, and proceeded to a small library, full of books, with a big
writing-table in the window. The room was somewhat dark, and the feet
fell softly on a thick carpet. There was no sort of luxury about the
room; a single portrait hung over the mantelpiece, and there was no
trace of ornament anywhere, except a big bowl of roses on a table.

Here, with a low table beside him covered with books, and a little
reading-desk pushed aside, I found Mr. ---- sitting. He was leaning
forwards in his chair, and Maud was sitting opposite him. They appeared
to be sile