now it floods her very pillow, and seems to
her eyes to take a holy loving kindness, holier and more loving as the
lids droop beneath it. A vague remembrance of some tale of "guardian
spirits," with which Waife had once charmed her wonder, stirred
through her lulling thoughts, linking itself with the presence of that
encircling moonlight. There! see the eyelids are closed, no tear upon
their fringe. See the dimples steal out as the sweet lips are parted.
She sleeps, she dreams already! Where and what is the rude world of
waking now? Are there not guardian spirits? Deride the question if
thou wilt, stern man, the reasoning and self-reliant; but thou, O fair
mother, who hast marked the strange happiness on the face of a child
that has wept itself to sleep, what sayest thou to the soft tradition,
which surely had its origin in the heart of the earliest mother?

CHAPTER XV.

There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere
enough to tell him disagreeable truths.

Meanwhile the Comedian had made himself and Sir Isaac extremely
comfortable. No unabstemious man by habit was Gentleman Waife. He could
dine on a crust, and season it with mirth; and as for exciting drinks,
there was a childlike innocence in his humour never known to a brain
that has been washed in alcohol. But on this special occasion, Waife's
heart was made so bounteous by the novel sense of prosperity that it
compelled him to treat himself. He did honour to the grilled chicken to
which he had vainly tempted Sophy. He ordered half a pint of port to be
mulled into negus. He helped himself with a bow, as if himself were a
guest, and nodded each time he took off his glass, as much as to say,
"Your health, Mr. Waife!" He even offered a glass of the exhilarating
draught to Sir Isaac, who, exceedingly offended, retreated under the
sofa, whence he peered forth through his deciduous ringlets, with brows
knit in grave rebuke. Nor was it without deliberate caution--a whisker
first, and then a paw--that he emerged from his retreat, when a plate
heaped with the remains of the feast was placed upon the hearth-rug.

The supper over, and the attendant gone, the negus still left, Waife
lighted his pipe, and, gazing on Sir Isaac, thus addressed that canine
philosopher: "Illustrious member of the Quadrupedal Society of Friends
to Man, and, as possessing those abilities for practical life which
but few friends to man ever display in his service, p