and over had I asked myself why he took me from where
I was loved and cherished, to live this life of ceremonious observance
and cold deference.

To know that he felt even such interest in me as this, was to restore me
to self-esteem at once. He would not have his son a coward, he said;
and as I felt in my heart that I was not a coward, as I knew I was ready
then and there to confront any peril he could propose to me, all that
the speech left in my memory was a sense of self-satisfaction.

In each of the letters I had received from my mother she impressed on me
how important it was that I should win my father's affection, and now a
hope flashed across me that I might do this. I sat down to tell her all
that had passed between us; but somehow, in recounting the incident of
the billiard-room, I wandered away into a description of the house, its
splendors and luxury, and of the life of costly pleasure that we were
living. "You will ask, dearest mamma," I wrote, "how and when I find
time to study amidst all these dissipations? and I grieve to own that I
do very little. Mr. Eccles says he is satisfied with me; but I fear it
is more because I obtrude little on his notice than that I am making any
progress. We are still in the same scene of the Adrian that I began
with you; and as to the Greek, we leave it over for Saturdays, and the
Saturdays get skipped. I have become a good shot with the rifle; and
George says I have the finest, lightest hand he knows on a horse, and
that he 'll make me yet a regular steeple-chase horseman. I have a
passion for riding, and sometimes get four mounts on a day. Indeed, papa
takes no interest in the stable, and I give all the orders, and can have
a team harnessed for me--which I do--when I am tired with the saddle.
They have not quite given up calling me 'that boy of Norcott's;' only
now, when they do so, it is to say how well he rides, and what a taste
he shows for driving and shooting.

"Don't be afraid that I am neglecting my music. I play every day, and
take singing lessons with an Italian: they call him the Count Guastalla;
but I believe he is the tenor of the opera here, and only teaches me out
of compliment to papa. He dines here nearly every day, and plays piquet
with papa all the evening.

"There is a very beautiful lady comes here,--Madame Cleremont. She is
the wife of the Secretary to the Legation. She is French, and has
such pleasing ways, and is so gay, and so good-natured, and