you had said so."

"What's the use of my coming here, if I'm to be a country doctor?"

"I have told you I do not mean to victimise you. If you have a distaste
to it, there's an end of it--I am quite ready."

Tom gave a great sigh. "No," he said, "if I must, I must; I don't mind
the part of it that you do. I only hate the name of it, and the being
tied down to a country place like that, while you go out thousands of
miles off to these savages; but if it is the only thing to content you,
I wont stand in your way. I can't bear your looking disconsolate."

"Don't think yourself bound, if you really dislike the profession."

"I don't," said Tom. "It is my free choice. If it were not for horrid
sick people, I should like it."

Promising! it must be confessed!

Perhaps Tom had expected Norman to brighten at once, but it was a
fallacious hope. The gaining his point involved no pleasant prospect,
and his young brother's moody devotion to him suggested scruples whether
he ought to exact the sacrifice, though, in his own mind, convinced
that it was Tom's vocation; and knowing that would give him many of the
advantages of an eldest son.

Eton fully justified Hector's declaration that it would not regard the
cut of Harry's coat. The hero of a lost ship and savage isle was the
object of universal admiration and curiosity, and inestimable were the
favours conferred by Hector and Tom in giving introductions to him, till
he had shaken hands with half the school, and departed amid deafening
cheers.

In spite of Harry, the day had been long and heavy to Norman, and though
he chid himself for his depression, he shrank from the sight of Meta and
Sir Henry Walkinghame together, and was ready to plead an aching head as
an excuse for not appearing at the evening party; but, besides that this
might attract notice, he thought himself bound to take care of Harry in
so new a world, where the boy must be at a great loss.

"I say, old June," cried a voice at his door, "are you ready?"

"I have not begun dressing yet. Will you wait?"

"Not I. The fun is beginning."

Norman heard the light foot scampering downstairs, and prepared to
follow, to assume the protection of him.

Music sounded as Norman left his room, and he turned aside to avoid the
stream of company flowing up the flower-decked stairs, and made his way
into the rooms through Flora's boudoir. He was almost dazzled by the
bright lights, and the gay murmurs of the brilliant t