towards the Lake Settlement. Emptying his pipe, the
lawyer found Miss Du Plessis and at once announced Mr. Rawdon's
proposal, which he urged her not to accept. She said the land was
certainly not worth any more, if it were worth that amount, and that a
thousand dollars would be of much immediate use to her mother. But
Coristine reminded her that Colonel Morton was, in all probability, with
her mother now, and begged her at least to wait until their joint
opinion could be procured. To this she agreed, and further conversation
was checked by the arrival of Marjorie, the five young Carruthers and
Mr. Michael Terry.

The whole party sallied out of the windows on to the verandah, the lawn,
and thence out of the front gate, where they found the dominie in a
state of radiant abstraction, strutting up and down the road, and
quoting pages of his favourite poet. He had just completed the lines:--

And yet a spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.

The lawyer went up to him before he came near and hissed at his friend,
"What about our compact?" to which the dominie, with a fierce
cheerfulness, replied, "It is broken, sir; shivered to atoms; buried in
oblivion. When a so-called honourable man takes a young lady walking in
garden and meadow alone, and breathes soft trifles in her ear, the
letter, the spirit, the whole periphery of the compact is gone. Your
conduct, sir, leaves me free to act as I please towards the world's
chief soul and radiancy. I shall do as I please, sir; I shall read
Louisa and Ruth and Laodamia and the Female Vagrant, none daring to make
me afraid. A single tress of ebon hair, a single beam of a dove-like
eye, shall be enough to fortify my heart against all your legal lore,
your scorn, your innuendos, your coward threats."

"Wilks, you're intoxicated."

"Such intoxication as mine is that of the soul--a thing to glory in."

"Well, go and glory, and read what you please; only add the Idiot Boy to
the Female Vagrant and you'll be a lovely pair. I'm going to do as I
please, too, so we're both happy at last."

Thus saying, the lawyer returned to Marjorie, while the dominie stood
stock still in the road, like a man thunderstruck, repeating: "The Idiot
Boy, the Female Vagrant, a pair?--and he was once my friend! A pair, a
pair--the Female Vagrant, the Idiot Boy!--and that slimy, crawling,
sickening caterpillar of a garden slug was once known to me! Truly, a
strange awaking!"

I