‘Ay, ay, my lad,’ responded the farmer, as with a glance at his wife, as much as to say, ‘he’s as mad as a March hare,’ he rose to quit the house for the stables. Hugh directed his attention more particularly to Nell. ‘I hope I haven’t worried you,’ he said sweetly. ‘I do not often introduce these subjects into my ordinary conversation, but your father drew me on before I was quite aware of it. I have brought you a book to read, which cannot fail to interest you, Livingstone’s Travels in Africa. Have you seen it yet?’ She took the volume listlessly, and answered ‘No.’ ‘How I should love to travel amongst those wild tribes,’ continued Hugh enthusiastically; ‘to make friends with them, and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. The fauna and the flora, too, of strange climates, how interesting they must be. To have undertaken such a journey--to have left such a record behind one--would almost satisfy the ambition of a lifetime.’ ‘You should be a missionary,’ said Nell; ‘you are cut out for it.’ ‘Do you really think so, that I could be worthy of so high a vocation? I have sometimes thought of it, but always shrunk back from so great a responsibility.’ ‘You seem fond of sacrifices,’ said Nell, half mockingly; ‘you were talking of making them just now. You would have plenty then. You would have to leave your parents and brother and sister, perhaps for ever; and be eaten up by a lion or your interesting cannibals instead.’ ‘Yes, yes, it would be hard,’ he answered, ignoring, or not perceiving the joking spirit in which she treated the idea, ‘and harder now than it has ever seemed before; but the prospect will be always before me, to my life’s end, as something that may come to pass, if I find no higher duties to keep me at home. But I am tiring you perhaps. You have not yet recovered from your long journey, Nell--if I may call you so--your eyes look weary, and your hands tremble. Are you sure you are quite well?’ ‘Yes, yes, perfectly so, only fatigued, as you surmise, and in need of fresh air. All Londoners are obliged, as a rule, to leave town after the hot season, you know, in order to recruit. I shall be all right when I have spent a few weeks in Usk.’ ‘And then I hope you will cease to speak or think of yourself as a Londoner. I have never been there, but I have heard it is full of temptations to frivolity and careless living, and that it is difficult to keep close to God in London. Tell me something of your life there, Nell. Had you liberty to go to church whenever you chose, and did you hear any fine preachers, such as Dr Liddon and Dr Irons? Did you ever go amongst the poor--the poor who live in alleys and back slums, or did your employer disapprove of your visiting such?’