e land that adjoined the field: the man followed him, and both
passed from Lionel's eyes. The doe had come to the gate to greet her
master; she now rested her nostrils on the bar, with a look disappointed
and plaintive.

"Come," said Lionel, "come." The doe would not stir.

So the boy walked on alone, not much occupied with what had just passed.
"Doubtless," thought he, "some person in the neighbourhood upon country
business."

He skirted the lake, and seated himself on a garden bench near the
house. What did he there think of?--who knows? Perhaps of the Great
World; perhaps of little Sophy! Time fled on: the sun was receding in
the west when Darrell hurried past him without speaking, and entered the
house.

The host did not appear at dinner, nor all that evening. Mr. Mills made
an excuse: Mr. Darrell did not feel very well.

Fairthorn had Lionel all to himself, and having within the last few
days reindulged in open cordiality to the young guest, he was especially
communicative that evening. He talked much on Darrell, and with all the
affection that, in spite of his fear, the poor flute-player felt for
his ungracious patron. He told many anecdotes of the stern man's tender
kindness to all that came within its sphere. He told also anecdotes more
striking of the kind man's sternness where some obstinate prejudice,
some ruling passion, made him "granite."

"Lord, my dear young sir," said Fairthorn, "be his most bitter open
enemy, and fall down in the mire, the first hand to help you would be
Guy Darrell's; but be his professed friend, and betray him to the worth
of a straw, and never try to see his face again if you are wise,--the
most forgiving and the least forgiving of human beings. But--"

The study door noiselessly opened, and Darrell's voice called out,
"Fairthorn, let me speak with you."

CHAPTER XV.

Every street has two sides, the shady side and the sunny. When two
men shake hands and part, mark which of the two takes the sunny
side: he will be the younger man of the two.

The next morning, neither Darrell nor Fairthorn appeared at breakfast;
but as soon as Lionel had concluded that meal, Mr. Mills informed him,
with customary politeness, that Mr. Darrell wished to speak with him in
the study. Study, across the threshold of which Lionel had never yet set
footstep! He entered it now with a sentiment of mingled curiosity and
awe. Nothing in it remarkable, save the portrait of the host's fa