lips as he stared at Richard, who was
gazing quietly at the pleasant Devon prospect past which they flew.

"Don't mind telling me what?" said Richard, dreamily.

"That I never expected to get you down here. Dick, old man, I've felt
like a steam-tug fussing about a big ship these last few days. However,
I've got you out of dock at last."

"Yes," said Richard, dreamily, "you've got me out of dock at last."

They relapsed into silence for a time, Pratt sitting watching his
friend, and noting more than ever the change that had come over him
during the last few months. There were lines in his forehead that did
not exist before, and a look of staid, settled melancholy, very
different from the calm, insouciant air that used to pervade his
countenance.

"Poor old Dick," muttered Pratt, laying aside his pipe; "I mustn't let
him look down like this." Then aloud, "Dick, old boy, I'm going to
preach to you."

Richard turned to him with a sad smile.

"Go on, then," he said.

"I will," said Pratt. "Never mind the text or the sequence of what I
say. I only wanted to talk to you, old fellow, about life."

"I was just then thinking about death," said Richard, quietly.

"About death?"

"I was visiting in spirit the little corner at Highgate where that poor
girl lies, and thinking of a wish she expressed."

"What was that?"

Richard shook his head, and they were silent as the train rushed on.

"Life is a strange mystery, Dick," said Pratt at last, laying his hand
on his friend's knee; "and I know it is giving you great pain to come
down here and see others happy. It is to give them pleasure you are
coming down?"

Richard nodded.

"Last time we were down here together, Dick, I was one of the most
miserable little beggars under the sun. I don't mind owning it now."

His friend grew more attentive.

"You were happy then, old fellow, and very hard you tried to make others
so too, but I was miserable."

"Why?"

"Because I was poor--a perfect beggar, without a prospect of rising, and
I had found out that in this queer little body of mine there was a very
soft heart. Dick, old boy, the wheel of fortune has given a strange
turn since then. I've gone up and you have gone down, and 'pon my soul,
old fellow, I'm very, very sorry."

"Nonsense, Franky," said Richard, speaking cheerfully. "If ever a man
was glad, I am, at your prosperity. But you don't look so very
cheerful, after all."

"How can I?" said Frank