But Grayle had made himself the idol of the mob; and at a word from Grayle, the fine gentleman might have been ducked at a pump, or tossed in a blanket-that would have made him ridiculous ;-to be shot at is a trifle, to be laughed at is serious. He therefore condescended to accept the challenge, and my father was his | second. "It was settled, of course, according to English custom, that both combatants should fire at the same time, and by signal. The antagonist fired at the right moment; his ball grazed Louis Grayle's temple. Louis Grayle had not fired. He now seemed to the seconds to take slow and deliberate aim. They called out to him not to fire-they were rushing to prevent him-when the trigger was pulled, and his opponent fell dead on the field. The fight was, therefore, considered unfair; Louis Grayle was tried for his life; he did not stand the trial in person.* He escaped to the Continent; hurried on to some distant uncivilized lands; could not be traced; reappeared in England no more. The lawyer who conducted his defence pleaded skilfully. He argued that the delay in firing was not intentional, therefore not criminal-the effect of the stun which the wound in the temple had occasioned. The judge was a gentleman, and summed up the evidence so as to direct the jury to a verdict against the low wretch who had murdered a gentleman. But the jurors were not gentlemen, and Grayle's advocate had of course excited their sympathy for a son of the people whom a gentleman had wantonly insulted-the verdict was manslaughter. But the sentence * Mrs. Poyntz here makes a mistake in law which, though very evident, her listeners do not seem to have noticed, Her mistake will be referred to later. emphatically marked the aggravated nature of the homicide-three years' imprisonment. Grayle eluded the prison, but he was a man disgraced and an exile-his ambition blasted, his career an outlaw's, and his age not yet twenty-three. My father said that he was supposed to have changed his name; none knew what had become of him. And so this creature, brilliant and daring, whom if born under better auspices we might now be all fawning on, cringing to-after living to old age, no one knows how-dies murdered at Aleppo, no one, you say, knows by whom." "I saw some account of his death in the papers about three years ago," said one of the party; "but the name was misspelt, and I had no idea that it was the same man who had fought the duel which Mrs. Colonel Poyntz has so graphically described. I have a very vague recollection of the trial; it took place when I was a boy, more than forty years since. The affair made a stir at the time, but was soon forgotten." "Soon forgotten," said Mrs. Poyntz; "ay, what is not? Leave your place in the world for ten minutes, and when you come back somebody else has taken it; but when you leave the world for good, who remembers that you had ever a place even in the parish register ?" "Nevertheless," said I, a great poet has said, finely and truly, 66 "The sun of Homer shines upon us still.'" "But it does not shine upon Homer; and learned folks tell me that we know no more who and what Homer was, if there was ever a single Homer at all, or, rather, a whole herd of Homers, than we know about the man in the moonif there be one man there, or mil As I walked home thoughtfully, I was accosted by a young man, the son of one of the wealthiest merchants in the town. I had attended him with success, some months before, in a rheumatic fever: he and his family were much attached to me. lions of men. Now, my dear Miss Brabazon, it will be very kind in you to divert our thoughts into channels less gloomy. Some pretty French air- - Dr. Fenwick, I have something to say to you." She drew me towards the window. So Anne Ashleigh writes me word that I am not to mention your engage- "Ah, my dear Fenwick, I am so ment. Do you think it quite pru-glad to see you; I owe you an oblident to keep it a secret ?" "I do not see how prudence is concerned in keeping it secret one way or the other-it is a mere matter of feeling. Most people wish to abridge, as far as they can, the time in which their private arrangements are the topic of public gossip." "Public gossip is sometimes the best security for the due completion of private arrangements. As long as a girl is not known to be engaged, her betrothed must be prepared for rivals. Announce the engagement, and rivals are warned off." "Do so, and constantly. By-theway, Mrs. Ashleigh, before she went, asked me to send her back Lady Haughton's letter of invitation. What for? to show to you ?" "Very likely. Have you the letter still? May I see it ?" "Not just at present. When Lilian or Mrs. Ashleigh writes to you, come and tell me how they like their visit, and what other guests form the party." Therewith she turned away and conversed apart with the traveller. Her words disquieted me, and I felt that they were meant to do sowherefore I could not guess. But there is no language on earth which has more words with a double meaning than that spoken by the Clever Woman, who is never so guarded as when she appears to be frank. gation of which you are not awarean exceedingly pleasant travelling companion. I came with him today from London, where I have been sight-seeing and holidaymaking for the last fortnight." "I suppose you mean that you kindly bring me a patient?" "No, only an admirer. I was staying at Fenton's Hotel. It so happened one day that I had left in the coffee-room your last work on the Vital Principle, which, by-theby, the bookseller assures me is selling immensely among readers as non-professional as myself. Coming into the coffee-room again, I found a gentleman reading the book. I claimed it politely; he [as politely tendered his excuse for taking it. We made acquaintance on the spot. The next day we were intimate. He expressed great interest and curiosity about your theory and your experiments. I told him I knew you. You may guess if I described you as less clever in your practice than you are in your writings. And, in short, he came with me to L, partly to see our flourishing town, principally on my promise to introduce him to you. My mother, you know, has what she calls a déjeuner to-morrow-déjeuner and dance. You will be there?" "Thank you for reminding me of her invitation. I will avail myself of it if I can. Your new friend will be present? Who and what is he? A medical student?" "No, a mere gentleman at ease; but seems to have a good deal of "It is quite enough to prepare me general information. Very young; to like him that he is a friend of apparently very rich; wonderfully yours." And so we shook hands good-looking. I am sure you will and parted. like him; everybody must." CHAPTER XXIII. the hand of Nature, stood literally in a frame of blooms. IT was late in the afternoon of the following day before I was able to join the party assembled at the Never have I seen human face merchant's house; it was a villa so radiant as that young man's. about two miles out of the town, There was in the aspect an indepleasantly situated, amidst flower- scribable something that literally gardens celebrated in the neigh- dazzled. As one continued to gaze, bourhood for their beauty. The it was with surprise; one was forced breakfast had been long over; the to acknowledge that in the features company was scattered over the themselves there was no faultless lawn; some formed into a dance regularity; nor was the young on the smooth lawn; some man's stature imposing-about the seated under shady awnings; middle height. But the effect of others gliding amidst parterres, the whole was not less transcendent. in which all the glow of colour took a glory yet more vivid under the flush of a brilliant sunshine, and the ripple of a soft western breeze. Music, loud and lively, mingled with the laughter of happy children, who formed much the larger number of the party. Standing at the entrance of an arched trellis, that led from the hardier flowers of the lawn to a rare collection of tropical plants under a lofty glass dome (connecting, as it were, the familiar vegetation of the North with that of the remotest East), was a form that instantaneously caught and fixed my gaze. The entrance of the arcade was covered with parasite creepers, in prodigal luxuriance, of variegated gorgeous tints, scarlet, golden, purple; and the form, an idealised picture of man's youth fresh from Large eyes, unspeakably lustrous; a most harmonious colouring; an expression of contagious animation and joyousness; and the form itself so critically fine, that the welded strength of its sinews was best shown in the lightness and grace of its movements. He was resting one hand carelessly on the golden locks of a child that had nestled itself against his knees, looking up to his face in that silent loving wonder with which children regard something too strangely beautiful for noisy admiration; he himself was conversing with the host, an old grey-haired, gouty man, propped on his crutched stick, and listening with a look of mournful envy. To the wealth of the old man all the flowers in that garden owed their renewed delight in the summer air and sun. Oh! that his wealth could renew to himself one hour of the youth whose incarnation stood beside him, Lord, indeed, of Creation; its splendour woven into his crown of beauty, its enjoyments subject to his sceptre of hope and gladness. I was startled by the hearty voice of the merchant's son: Ah, my dear Fenwick, I was afraid you would not come you are late. There is the new friend of whom I spoke to you last night; let me now make you acquainted with him." He drew my arm in his, and led me up to the young man, where he stood under the arching flowers, and whom he then introduced to me by the name of Margrave. Nothing could be more frankly cordial than Mr. Margrave's manner. In a few minutes I found myself conversing with him familiarly, as if we had been reared in the same home, and sported together in the same playground. His vein of talk was peculiar, off-hand, careless, shifting from topic to topic with a bright rapidity. He said that he liked the place; proposed to stay in it some weeks; asked my address, which I gave to him; promised to call soon at an early hour, while my time was yet free from professional visits. I endeavoured, when I went away, to analyze to myself the fascination which this young stranger so notably exercised over all who approached him; and it seemed to me, ever seeking to find material causes for all moral effects, that it rose from the contagious vitality of that rarest of all rare gifts in highlycivilized circles-perfect health; that health which is in itself the most exquisite luxury; which, finding happiness in the mere sense of existence, diffuses round it, like an atmosphere, the harmless hilarity of its bright animal being. Health, to the utmost perfection, is seldom known after childhood; health to the utmost cannot be enjoyed by those who overwork the brain, or admit the sure wear and tear of the passions. The creature I had just seen gave me the notion of youth in the golden age of the poets-the youth of the careless Arcadian, before nymph or shepherdess had vexed his heart with a sigh. CHAPTER XXIV. chiefly occupied by mercantile clerks and retired tradesmen. By the lane there was a short and ready access both to the high turnpike-road, and to some pleasant walks through green meadows and along the banks of a river. THE house I occupied at L-wasting on a row of smaller buildings, a quaint, old-fashioned building-a with little gardens before them, corner-house. One side, in which was the front entrance, looked upon a street which, as there were no shops in it, and it was no direct thoroughfare to the busy centres of the town, was always quiet, and at some hours of the day almost deserted. The other side of the house fronted a lane; opposite to it was the long and high wall of the garden to a Young Ladies' Boarding-School. My stables adjoined the house, abut This house I had inhabited since my arrival at L, and it had to me so many attractions, in a situation sufficiently central to be convenient for patients, and yet free from noise, and favourable to ready outlet into gate to the iron palisade locked; the country for such foot or horse but during the daytime I so often exercise as my professional avoca- went out of the house by that pritions would allow me to carve for vate way that the gate was then very myself out of what the Latin poet seldom locked, nor the sash-door calls the "solid day," that I had bolted from within. In the town of refused to change it for one better L- there was little apprehension suited to my increased income; but of house-robberies-especially in the it was not a house which Mrs. Ash- daylight-and certainly in this room, leigh would have liked for Lilian. cut off from the main building, there The main objection to it in the eyes was nothing to attract a vulgar cupiof the "genteel" was, that it had dity. A few of the apothecary's formerly belonged to a member of shelves and cases still remained on the healing profession, who united the walls, with, here and there, a the shop of an apothecary to the bottle of some chemical preparation diploma of a surgeon; but that shop for experiment. Two or three wormhad given the house a special attrac- eaten, wooden chairs; two or three tion to me; for it had been built shabby old tables; an old walnutout on the side of the house which tree bureau, without a lock, into fronted the lane, occupying the which odds and ends were confusedly greater portion of a small gravel thrust, and sundry ugly-looking incourt, fenced from the road by a low ventions of mechanical science, were, iron palisade, and separated from assuredly, not the articles which a the body of the house itself by a timid proprietor would guard with short and narrow corridor that com-jealous care from the chances of municated with the entrance-hall. robbery. It will be seen later why I This shop I turned into a rude study for scientific experiments, in which I generally spent some early hours of the morning, before my visiting patients began to arrive. I enjoyed the stillness of its separation from the rest of the house; I enjoyed the glimpse of the great chestnut-trees, which overtopped the wall of the school-garden; I enjoyed the ease with which, by opening the glazed sash-door, I could get out, if disposed for a short walk, into the pleasant fields; and so completely had I made this sanctuary my own, that not only my man-servant knew that I was never to be disturbed when in it, except by the summons of a patient, but even the housemaid was forbidden to enter it with broom or duster, except upon special invitation. The last thing at night, before retiring to rest, it was the manservant's business to see that the sash-window was closed, and the have been thus prolix in description. The morning after I had met the young stranger by whom I had been so favourably impressed, I was up as usual, a little before the sun, and long before any of my servants were astir. I went first into the room I have mentioned, and which I shall henceforth designate as my study, opened the window, unlocked the gate, and sauntered for some minutes up and down the silent lane skirting the opposite wall, and overhung by the chestnut-trees rich in the garniture of a glorious summer; then, refreshed for work, I re-entered my study and was soon absorbed in the examination of that now well-known machine, which was then, to me at least, a novelty; invented, if I remember right, by Dubois-Reymond, so distinguished by his researches into the mysteries of organic elec-tricity. It is a wooden cylinder fixed against the edge of a table; on the |