f
kindness. Almost the same moment the butler entered from a third door,
and said dinner waited. The earl walked on, and Donal followed. This
room also was a small one. The meal was laid on a little round table.
There were but two covers, and Simmons alone was in waiting.

While they ate and drank, which his lordship did sparingly, not a word
was spoken. Donal would have found it embarrassing had he not been
prepared for the peculiar. His lordship took no notice of his guest,
leaving him to the care of the butler. He looked very white and
worn--Donal thought a good deal worse than when he saw him first. His
cheeks were more sunken, his hair more gray, and his eyes more
weary--with a consuming fire in them that had no longer much fuel and
was burning remnants. He stooped over his plate as if to hide the
operation of eating, and drank his wine with a trembling hand. Every
movement indicated indifference to both his food and his drink.

At length the more solid part of the meal was removed, and they were
left alone, fruit upon the table, and two wine-decanters. From one of
them the earl helped himself, then passed it to Donal, saying,

"You are very good to my little Davie, Mr. Grant! He is full of your
kindness to him. There is nobody like you!"

"A little goes a long way with Davie, my lord," answered Donal.

"Then much must go a longer way!" said the earl.

There was nothing remarkable in the words, yet he spoke them with the
difficulty a man accustomed to speak, and to weigh his words, might
find in clothing a new thought to his satisfaction. The effort seemed
to have tried him, and he took a sip of wine. This, however, he did
after every briefest sentence he uttered: a sip only he took, nothing
like a mouthful.

Donal told him that Davie, of all the boys he had known, was far the
quickest, and that just because he was morally the most teachable.

"You greatly gratify me, Mr. Grant," said the earl. "I have long wished
such a man as you for Davie. If only I had known you when Forgue was
preparing for college!"

"I must have been at that time only at college myself, my lord!"

"True! true!"

"But for Davie, it is a privilege to teach him!"

"If only it might last a while!" returned the earl. "But of course you
have the church in your eye!"

"My lord, I have not."

"What!" cried his lordship almost eagerly; "you intend giving your life
to teaching?"

"My lord," returned Donal, "I never trouble myself ab