“I have not been altogether satisfied with Doctor Urquhart of late, much as I esteem him. He does not appear sufficiently to value what--I may say it without conceit--from an old man to a younger one, is always of some worth. Yesterday, when I invited him here, he declined again, and a little too--too decidedly.” Seeing an answer waited for, I said, “Yes, papa.” “I am sorry, having such great respect for him, and such pleasure in his society.” Papa paused. “When a man desires to win or retain his footing in a family, he usually takes some pains to secure it. If he does not, the natural conclusion is that he does _not_ desire it.” Another pause. “Whenever Doctor Urquhart chooses to come here, he will always be welcome--most welcome; but I cannot again invite him to Rockmount.” “No, papa.” This was all. He then took up his Times, and read it through: I lay quiet; quiet all the evening--quiet until I went to bed. To-day I find in the same old book before quoted:-- “The true theory of friendship is this:--Once a friend, always a friend. But, answerest thou, doth not every day's practice give the lie to that doctrine? Many, if not most friendships, be like a glove, that however well fitting at first, doth by constant use wax loose and ungainly, if it doth not quite wear out. And others, not put off and on, but close to a man as his own skin and flesh, are yet liable to become diseased: he may have to lose them, and live on without them, as after the lopping off of a limb, or the blinding of an eye. And likewise, there be friendships which a man groweth out of, naturally and blamelessly, even as out of his child-clothes: the which, though no longer suitable for his needs, he keepeth religiously, unforgotten and undestroyed, and often visiteth with a kindly tenderness, though he knoweth they can cover and warm him no more. All these instances do clearly prove that a friend is not always a friend.” “'Yea,' quoth Fidelis, 'he is. Not in himself, may be, but unto thee. The future and the present are thine and his; the past is beyond ye both; an unalienable possession, a bond never disannulled. Ye may let it slip, of natural disuse, throw it aside as worn-out and foul; cut it off, cover it up, and bury it; but it hath been, and therefore in one sense for ever must be. Transmutation is the law of all mortal things; but so far as we know, there is not, and will not be, until the great day of the second death--in the whole universe, any such thing as annihilation. “And so take heed. Deceive not thyself, saying that, because a thing is not, it never was. Respect thyself--thine old self, as well as thy new. Be faithful to thyself, and to all that ever was thine. Thy friend is always thy friend. Not to have or to hold, to love or rejoice in, but _to remember_.