stic, and children love enthusiasm: there was a
tinge of sadness in his demeanour, and childish pity is more akin to
affection than that of older persons. It was not wonderful that
Randolph and Helen were frequently glad to escape from the presence of
the cold and stern man whom they called father, to the teaching of the
tender and gentle being who ruled in the library. Nor was it more
strange that with such an instructor they made rapid proficiency in
whatever pursuit he directed.

"Lonely," he exclaimed one day, when Randolph, then sixteen, inquired
if he did not feel so in the solitude of the castle, "lonely with a
library like this! Lonely in the society of those around me! Of Park,
first beholding the Niger! Of Columbus, seeing the light from the poop
of his ship! Of Watt, contemplating one of our Cornish engines! Of
Newton, observing the fall of the apple! Of Luther, taking his stand
at the Diet of Worms! Of Shakspeare, giving

'to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name!'

Of Bacon, writing 'Thus thought Francis of Verulam!' Lonely amidst the
triumphs of enterprise, art and science; of history, poetry and
philosophy! Lonely, where whatever science has discovered, and art
applied, and enterprise accomplished; what history has recorded, and
poetry exalted, and philosophy ordered, is visibly presented! Where
power, skill, and understanding, memory, fancy, and wisdom have
written their greatest names, their mightiest deeds, their noblest
thoughts! No, Randolph Trevethlan, there is no loneliness in such
society as this."

It was his own feeling, perhaps, that Randolph expressed in the
inquiry which extracted this speech from the chaplain. For to the
buoyancy of youth, the castle might well seem a dreary abode. When a
man gives up the world, the world generally returns the compliment;
and in this instance Mr. Trevethlan's violation of the bienseances in
his marriage widened the breach. No friend or relation visited him
during the last years of his life. And, indeed, their entertainment
would have been a serious burden on the finances of their host. It is
probable that the steward was a much richer man than his master; it is
not impossible that all the expenses of Trevethlan did not fall upon
its lord.

Yet the establishment had gradually declined to the lowest point. An
old porter, named Jeffrey, who occupied the entrance lodge to the
inner court, and cultivated a small kitchen garden, w