an additional landmark to time; besides the mutton of
to-day succeeding the beef of yesterday. Heigh-ho! I'll tell you what,
Guy. Though I may carry it off with a high hand, 'tis no joke to be
a helpless log all the best years of a man's life,--nay, for my whole
life,--for at the very best of the contingencies the doctors are always
flattering me with, I should make but a wretched crippling affair of it.
And if that is the best hope they give me, you may guess it is likely to
be a pretty deal worse. Hope? I've been hoping these ten years, and much
good has it done me. I say, Guy,' he proceeded, in a tone of extreme
bitterness, though with a sort of smile, 'the only wonder is that I
don't hate the very sight of you! There are times when I feel as if I
could bite some men,--that Tomfool Maurice de Courcy, for instance, when
I hear him rattling on, and think--'

'I know I have often talked thoughtlessly, I have feared afterwards I
might have given you pain.'

'No, no, you never have; you have carried me along with you. I like
nothing better than to hear of your ridings, and shootings, and
boatings. It is a sort of life.'

Charles had never till now alluded seriously to his infirmity before
Guy, and the changing countenance of his auditor showed him to be
much affected, as he stood leaning over the end of the sofa, with his
speaking eyes earnestly fixed on Charles, who went on:

'And now you are going to Oxford. You will take your place among the men
of your day. You will hear and be heard of. You will be somebody. And
I!--I know I have what they call talent--I could be something. They
think me an idle dog; but where's the good of doing anything? I only
know if I was not--not condemned to--to this--this life,' (had it not
been for a sort of involuntary respect to the gentle compassion of the
softened hazel eyes regarding him so kindly, he would have used the
violent expletive that trembled on his lip;) 'if I was not chained down
here, Master Philip should not stand alone as the paragon of the family.
I've as much mother wit as he.'

'That you have,' said Guy. 'How fast you see the sense of a passage. You
could excel very much if you only tried.'

'Tried?' And what am I to gain by it?'

'I don't know that one ought to let talents rust,' said Guy,
thoughtfully; 'I suppose it is one's duty not; and surely it is a pity
to give up those readings.'

'I shall not get such another fellow dunce as you,' said Charles, 'as I