ntleman, in a testy
and still harsher tone than before, as he turned round on his stool with
an angry glance under his spectacles. "Eh?"

The person he addressed was a fair complexioned boy, about twelve years
old, with large blue eyes, and brown hair in wavey curls, a broad
forehead, and an open, frank, intelligent countenance. He was dressed
in a jacket and trousers of black cloth, not over well made perhaps, nor
fresh looking, although they did not spoil his figure; his broad shirt
collar turned back and fastened by a ribbon showed to advantage his neck
and well-set-on head. It would have been difficult to find two people
offering a greater contrast than the old man and the boy.

"Please, sir," answered the latter, with considerable hesitation,
"Farmer Rowe wished me to come here to see you, as he hopes--"

"And who in the name of wonder is Farmer Rowe, and who are you?"
exclaimed the old gentleman, kicking his heels against the leg of the
stool.

Before the boy could find words to go on with what he was saying, or
could check the choking sensation which rose in his throat, a clerk, the
counterpart of his master, in respect of dinginess and snuffiness,
entered with a handful of papers which required signing, and a huge
folio under his arm. As, in the eyes of the old gentleman, his business
was of far more consequence than any matter which could be connected
with that pale-faced, gentle boy in the threadbare suit, he turned round
to the desk, and applied himself to the papers, as his clerk handed them
to him in succession.

The boy was, in the meantime, left unnoticed to his own reflections.
While the old gentleman was absorbed in the folio, the clerk gave a
glance round at the young stranger, and the expression conveyed in that
glance did not add pleasantness to the lad's feelings, as he stood
clutching his crape-bound hat. Leaving the two old men engaged in their
books and papers, a fuller account must be given of the boy than he was
likely to afford of himself.

Some thirty years before the period at which this history commences a
young gentleman, Owen Hartley, who was pursuing his academical course
with credit, preparatory to entering the ministry, fell in love during a
long vacation with a well-educated young lady of respectable position in
life, if not of birth equal to his. She returned his affection, and it
was agreed that they should marry when he could obtain a living. Being
ordained, he was ap