r set
eyes on. He wished to please her in every way in his power. If she had
desired him to give up his intention of accompanying Will Brinsmead, he
would have done so, or he would even have gone to college, and tried to
study like his brother, if she had desired it; but she had not intimated
a wish on either of these subjects, and seemed perfectly content that he
should follow out his own inclinations. And yet she evidently desired
to influence him in some way, and that was what most puzzled him. He
had always heard William spoken of as the best king for England, and
James as a man likely to prove an opponent of religious liberty and of
the advancement and prosperity of the country.

He was even more than usually silent when he reached home, and Polly had
to stir him up before he would give any account of his visit to the
Grange. He, however, said nothing on the subject which Alethea had
discussed with him.

A few days after this, having been declared perfectly convalescent, Jack
set off to pay his respects to Mr Strelley, and to receive that
gentleman's last orders. As he approached the door, he saw Cousin Nat's
scarlet cloak a little ahead of him. He soon overtook the worthy
doctor.

"Well, Jack, I am glad to find you," said his cousin: "I want to have a
few words with you before you start, and there's no opportunity like the
present. Let me advise you, as you have entered into this business, to
stick to it, and you will find it as lucrative, at all events, as any
you could well engage in. You will pass in your journeys many a fine
park and noble palace going to decay through the fines and alienations
which have fallen upon them, and you will thus see for yourself how
truly it has been lately written, that `an estate is but a pond, but
trade a spring;' for you will also come upon fair houses, whose owners'
names were unknown before the late Civil Wars, and you will find them
flourishing by means of trade, honourably carried on from father to son,
whereby not only wealth, but titles too have been won for this
generation, and which promise to last for many yet to come."

Mr Strelley received Jack pleasantly, not the less so, perhaps, that he
was accompanied by the doctor, who told him of the advice he had been
giving his young kinsman.

"Ah, indeed!" observed the worthy manufacturer, "the wool trade is the
great staple, and next to it I place the cattle trade. I will not
detain you now to give you an ac