ties of life."

"Whoever has a desire for such information must be made very different
from me!" said Miss Graeme.

"Are you sure of that? Did you never make yourself unhappy about what
might be on its way to you, and wish you could know beforehand
something to guide you how to meet it?"

"I should have to think before answering that question."

"Now tell me--what can the art of writing, and its expansion, or
perhaps its development rather, in printing, do in the same direction
as necromancy? May not a man well long after personal communication
with this or that one of the greatest who have lived before him? I
grant that in respect of some it can do nothing; but in respect of
others, instead of mocking you with an airy semblance of their bodily
forms, and the murmur of a few doubtful words from their lips, it
places in your hands a key to their inmost thoughts. Some would say
this is not personal communication; but it is far more personal than
the other. A man's personality does not consist in the clothes he
wears; it only appears in them; no more does it consist in his body,
but in him who wears it."

As he spoke, Miss Graeme kept looking him gravely in the face,
manifesting, however, more respect than interest. She had been
accustomed to a very different tone in young men. She had found their
main ambition to amuse; to talk sense about other matters than the
immediate uses of this world, was an out-of-the-way thing! I do not
say Miss Graeme, even on the subject last in hand, appreciated the
matter of Donal's talk. She perceived he was in earnest, and happily
was able to know a deep pond from a shallow one, but her best thought
concerning him was--what a strange new specimen of humanity was here!

The appearance of her brother coming down the walk, put a stop to the
conversation.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A TRADITION OF THE CASTLE.

"Well," he said as he drew near, "I am glad to see you two getting on
so well!"

"How do you know we are?" asked his sister, with something of the
antagonistic tone which both in jest and earnest is too common between
near relations.

"Because you have been talking incessantly ever since you met."

"We have been only contradicting each other."

"I could tell that too by the sound of your voices; but I took it for a
good sign."

"I fear you heard mine almost only!" said Donal. "I talk too much, and
I fear I have gathered the fault in a way that makes it difficult to