e will take up
doctoring again after that, though I have my doubts whether he will do
that. However, there is no use in telling her so. Shall I show her that
letter, squire?"

"No," the squire replied, "of course you can tell her what's in it; but
I will keep the letter myself. I would give a good deal if he had not
written it. It is certainly badly worded, though why he should feel any
malice, towards the other, is more than I can tell."

His companion was about to speak, but thought better of it, and,
without another word, went to break the news to Mrs. Walsham.

Mrs. Walsham was terribly upset. After suffering her to cry for some
time in silence, Mr. Wilks said:

"My dear madam, I know that this news must distress you terribly; but
it may be that in this, as in all things, a providence has overruled
your plans for your son, for his own good. I will tell you now what you
would never have known had this affair never occurred. Jim, at heart,
hates his father's profession. He is a dutiful son and, rather than
give you pain, he was prepared to sacrifice all his own feelings and
wishes. But the lad is full of life and energy. The dull existence of a
country surgeon, in a little town like this, is the last he would adopt
as his own choice; and I own that I am not surprised that a lad of
spirit should long for a more adventurous life. I should have told you
this long ago, and advised you that it would be well for you both to
put it frankly to him that, although you would naturally like to see
him following his father's profession, still that you felt that he
should choose for himself; and that, should he select any other mode of
life, you would not set your wishes against his. But the lad would not
hear of my doing so. He said that, rather than upset your cherished
plans, he would gladly consent to settle down in Sidmouth for life. I
honoured him for his filial spirit; but, frankly, I think he was wrong.
An eagle is not made to live in a hen coop, nor a spirited lad to
settle down in a humdrum village; and I own that, although I regret the
manner of his going, I cannot look upon it as an unmixed evil, that the
force of circumstances has taken him out of the course marked out for
him, and that he will have an opportunity of seeing life and
adventure."

Mrs. Walsham had listened, with a surprise too great to admit of her
interrupting the old soldier's remarks.

"I never dreamed of this," she said at last, when he ceased