What Will He Do With It, Book 2.

world an

phy, his brain had enough to work on. When he slept at last, his slumber was deep and heavy, and he did not wake till gently shaken by the well-bred arm of Mr. Mills. "I humbly beg pardon: nine o'clock, sir

ling up the hiatus. Darrell turned his eye towards the speaker, who evidently became much frightened, and, after looking in vain for a corner, sidled away to the window and poked himself behind the curtain. "Mr. Fairthorn, in the capacity of my secretary, has learned to find me thoughts, and

irthorn, who was looking the picture of misery. "After twelve, it will be just the weather for trout to rise; and if you fish, Mr. F

rout in your

any other savages, for whom we bait with a missionary and whom we impale on a bayonet. But I regard my lake as a politic community, under the protection of the law, and leave its denizens to devour each other, as Europea

similar remarks of mocking irony or sarcastic spleen. It was not bitter nor s

him the dignity of elevated stature, the commanding aspect that accompanies the upright carriage. His figure was inclined to be slender, though broad of shoulder and deep of chest; it was the figure of a young man and probably little changed from what it might have been at five-and-twenty. A certain youthfulness still lingered even on the countenance,-strange, for sorrow is supposed to expedite the work of age; and Darrell had known sorrow of a kind most adapted to harrow his peculiar nature, as great in its degree as ever left man's heart in ruins. No gray was visible in the dark brown hair, that, worn short behind, still retained in front the large Jove-like curl. No wrinkle, save at the corner of the eyes, marred the pale bronze of the firm cheek; the forehead was smooth as marble, and as massive. It was that forehead which chiefly contributed to the superb expression of his whole aspect. It was high to a fault; the perceptive organs, over a dark, strongly- marked, arched eyebrow, powerfully developed, as they are with most eminent lawyers; it did not want for breadth at the temples; yet, on the whole, it bespoke more of intellectual vigour and dauntless will than of serene philosophy or all-embracing benevolence. It was the forehead of a man formed to command and awe the passions and intellect of others by the strength of passions in himself, rather concentred than chastised, and by an intellect forceful from the weight of its mass rather than the niceness of its balance. The other features harmonized with that brow; they were of the noblest order of aquiline, at once high and delicate. The lip had a rare combination of exquisite refinement and inflexible resolve. The eye, in repose, was cold, bright, unrevealing, with a certain absent, musing, self-absor

u gazed on him as he there stood, the more perplexed became the enigma,-how with a career sought with such energy, advanced with such success, the ma

ay, soon lost from sight amidst the thick foliage of su

irthorn; "he is only a

blunt amaze at the elderly-looking personage

birthday." "Mr. Darrell

nds so still! Fishing, too, is very conducive to longevity. If you will follow me, we will get the rods; and the flute,-you

the fly at present; and will you not, in

he other indeed would have had a music-room! But, after

n for Mr. Darrell's domestic establishment, which consisted but of two men and four maids (the stablemen not lodging in the house). Drawing-room properly speaking that primitive mansion had none. At some remote period a sort of gallery under the gable roofs (above the first floor), stretching from end to end of the house, might have served for the reception of guests on grand occasions; for fragments of

cular stair cut into the massive wall, ascended first into Mr. Darrell's sleeping-chamber, and thence into a gable recess that adjoined the gallery, and which the host had fitted up for the purpose of scientific experiments in chemistry or other branches of practical philosophy. These more private rooms Lionel was not permitted to enter. Altogether the house was one of those cruel tenem

rn found themselves in the library, "that Mr. Darrell began to build a n

Mr. Darrell. He would as soon have pulled dow

must surely have swa

intention to appropriate it entirely to mediaeval antiquities, of which he has a wonderful collection. He had a notion of illustrating every earlier re

mpertinent question, wh

Lon

a peep of some of the treas

y in his pocket, and, motioning Lionel to follow him, entered within the ribs of the stony skeleton. Lionel followed in a sort of supernatural awe, and beheld, with more substantial alarm, Mr. Fairthorn winding up an inclined plank which lie embraced with both arms, and by which he

up the plank, balancing himself schoolboy fashion, wit

carefully and gradually, till he dropped on the timber joist as if it were a velocipede, his long legs dangling down, he with thi

e stood in the same place. "

t the joists upon the rugged ground overspread with stones and rubbish,

re nailed across, with a little door just big enough to creep through; but that is locked, -Chubb's lock, and Mr. Darrell keeps

ther crevice for himself, and saw, piled up in admired disorder, pictures, with their backs turned to a desolate wall, rare cabinets, and articles of curious furniture, chests, boxes, crates,-heaped pell-mell. Th

ely curious as early specimens, intended for the old house, all spoiling and rotting; Mr. Darrell wishes th

el, aghast. "The last man I should

r the roof will fall down upon us! Come away. You have seen all

e building; and Lionel felt like a knight of old