not need. There are excellent institutions of learning in this
country now.'

'I do not know where.'

'My wife can tell you. She has some knowledge of such things, through
friends who have daughters at school. She could tell you of several
good schools for girls.'

'Where are they?'

'I believe in or near New York.'

'I do not wish to leave Seaforth,' said the colonel gloomily.

'And I am sure we do not wish to have you leave it,' said the other,
rising. 'It would be a terrible loss to us. Perhaps, after all, I have
been officious; and you are giving Esther an education more than equal
to what she could get at school.'

'I cannot quit Seaforth,' the colonel repeated. 'All that I care for in
the world lies here. When I have done with the world, I wish to lie
here too; and till then I will wait.'

Mr. Dallas took his leave; and the set of his mouth was grim again as
he walked home.

CHAPTER XVII.

_MOVING_.

Mr. Dallas's visits became frequent. He talked of a great variety of
things, but never failed to bring the colonel's mind to the subject of
Esther's want of education. Indirectly or directly, somehow, he
presented to the colonel's mind that one idea: that his daughter was
going without the advantages she needed and ought to have. It was true,
and the colonel could not easily dispose of the thought which his
friend so persistently held up before him. Waters wear away stones, as
we know to a proverb; and so it befell in this case, and Mr. Dallas
knew it must. The colonel began to grow uneasy. He often reasserted
that he would never leave Seaforth; he began to think about it,
nevertheless.

'What should I do with this place?' he asked one evening when the
subject was up.

'What do you wish to do with it?'

'I wish to live in it as long as I live anywhere,' said the colonel,
sighing; 'but you say--and perhaps you are right--that I ought to be
somewhere else for my child's sake. In that case, what could I do with
my place here?'

'I ask again, what do you wish to do with it? Would you let it?'

'No,' said the colonel, sighing again; 'if I go I must sell. My means
will not allow me to do otherwise.'

'I will buy it of you, if you wish to sell.'

'You! What would you do with the property?'

'Keep it for you, against a time when you may wish to buy it back. But
indeed it would come very conveniently for me. I should like to have
it, for my own purposes. I will give you its utmost value.'