bout to set out on a pedestrian tour. I had, as
you say, some pounds in my pocket; and thus I have passed with you the
merriest days of my life."

VANCE.--"What said your civil cousin when your refusal to go to college
was conveyed to him?"

LIONEL.--"He did not answer my mother's communication to that effect
till just before I left home, and then,--no, it was not his last letter
from which I repeated that withering extract,--no, the last was more
galling still, for in it he said that if, in spite of the ability and
promise that had been so vaunted, the dulness of a college and the
labour of learned professions were so distasteful to me, he had no
desire to dictate to my choice, but that as he did not wish one who was,
however remotely, of his blood, and bore the name of Haughton, to turn
shoeblack or pickpocket--Vance--Vance!"

VANCE.--"Lock up your pride--the sackcloth frets you--and go on; and
that therefore he--"

LIONEL.--"Would buy me a commission in the army, or get me an
appointment in India."

VANCE.--"Which did you take?"

LIONEL (passionately). "Which! so offered,--which?--of course neither!
But distrusting the tone of my mother's reply, I sat down, the evening
before I left home, and wrote myself to this cruel man. I did not show
any letter to my mother,--did not tell her of it. I wrote shortly,--that
if he would not accept my gratitude, I would not accept his benefits;
that shoeblack I might be,--pickpocket, no! that he need not fear I
should disgrace his blood or my name; and that I would not rest till,
sooner or later, I had paid him back all that I had cost him, and felt
relieved from the burdens of an obligation which--which--" The boy
paused, covered his face with his hands, and sobbed.

Vance, though much moved, pretended to scold his friend, but finding
that ineffectual, fairly rose, wound his arm brother-like round him, and
drew him from the arbour to the shelving margin of the river. "Comfort,"
then said the Artist, almost solemnly, as here, from the inner depths
of his character, the true genius of the man came forth and
spoke,--"comfort, and look round; see where the islet interrupts the
tide, and how smilingly the stream flows on. See, just where we stand,
how the slight pebbles are fretting the wave would the wave if not
fretted make that pleasant music? A few miles farther on, and the river
is spanned by a bridge, which busy feet now are crossing: by the side
of that bridge now is ris