reat the other way. It was
some kind of a fever, was it not?"

"I believe so," said the other, sighing.

"And they bled you and blistered you, of course. These fellows are like
the farriers--they have but the one system for everything. Who was your
torturer; where did you get him from?"

"A practitioner of the neighborhood, the wild growth of the mountain,"
said Glencore, with a sickly smile; "but I must n't be ungrateful; he
saved my life, if that be a cause for gratitude."

"And a right good one, I take it. How like you that boy is, Glencore! I
started back when he met me. It was just as if I was transported again
to old school-days, and had seen yourself as you used to be long ago. Do
you remember the long meadow, Glencore?"

"Harcourt," said he, falteringly, "don't talk to me of long ago,--at
least not now;" and then, as if thinking aloud, added, "How strange that
a man without a hope should like the future better than the past!"

"How old is Charley?" asked Harcourt, anxious to engage him on some
other theme.

"He 'll be fifteen, I think, his next birthday; he seems older, does n't
he?"

"Yes, the boy is well grown and athletic. What has he been doing--have
you had him at a school?"

"At a school!" said Glencore, starting; "no, he has lived always here
with myself. I have been his tutor; I read with him every day, till that
illness seized me."

"He looks clever; is he so?"

"Like the rest of us, George, he may learn, but he can't be taught. The
old obstinacy of the race is strong in him, and to rouse him to rebel
all you have to do is to give him a task; but his faculties are
good, his apprehension quick, and his memory, if he would but tax it,
excellent. Here 's Craggs come to tell us of dinner; give me your arm,
George, we haven't far to go--this one room serves us for everything."

"You're better lodged than I expected--your letters told me to look for
a mere barrack; and the place stands so well."

"Yes, the spot was well chosen, although I suppose its founders cared
little enough about the picturesque."

The dinner-table was spread behind one of the massive screens, and,
under the careful direction of Craggs and old Simon, was well and amply
supplied,--fish and game, the delicacies of other localities, being here
in abundance. Har-court had a traveller's appetite, and enjoyed himself
thoroughly, while Glencore never touched a morsel, and the boy ate
sparingly, watching the stranger with that