at?' said
Miss Frere in her bewilderment.

'You are coming back to my question.'

There ensued a pause, during which the stitches of embroidery were
taken slowly.

'What do you intend to do with _your_ life, Mr. Dallas, since pleasure
and fame are ruled out?' the young lady asked.

'You see, that decision waits on the previous question,' he answered.

'But it has got to be decided,' said Miss Frere, 'or you will be'--

'Nothing. Yes, I am aware of that.'

There was again a pause.

'Miss Frere,' Pitt then began again, 'did you ever see a person whose
happiness rested on a lasting foundation?'

The young lady looked at her companion anew as if he were to her a very
odd character.

'What do you mean?' she said.

'I mean, a person who was thoroughly happy, not because of
circumstances, but in spite of them?'

'To begin with, I never saw anybody that was "thoroughly happy." I do
not believe in the experience.'

'I am obliged to believe in it. I have known a person who seemed to be
clean lifted up out of the mud and mire of troublesome circumstances,
and to have got up to a region of permanent clear air and sunshine. I
have been envying that person ever since.'

'May I ask, was it a man or a woman?'

'Neither; it was a young girl.'

'It is easy to be happy at _that_ age.'

'Not for her. She had been very unhappy.'

'And got over it?'

'Yes; but not by virtue of her youth or childishness, as you suppose.
She was one of those natures that are born with a great capacity for
suffering, and she had begun to find it out early; and it was from the
depths of unhappiness that she came out into clear and peaceful
sunshine; with nothing to help her either in her external surroundings.'

'Couldn't you follow her steps and attain her experience?' asked Miss
Frere mockingly.

Pitt rose up from the mat where he had been lying, laughed, and shook
himself.

'As you will not go to drive,' he said, 'I believe I will go alone.'

But he went on horseback, and rode hard.

CHAPTER XXXV.

_ANTIQUITIES_.

As Pitt went off, Mrs. Dallas came on the verandah. 'You would not go
to drive?' she said to Betty.

'It is so hot, dear Mrs. Dallas! I had what was much better than a
drive--a good long talk.'

'What do you think of my boy?' asked the mother, with an accent of
happy confidence in which there was also a vibration of pride.

'He puzzles me. Has he not some peculiar opinions?'

'Have you found that out