"Ha!" said he then, with one of his short, quick, impatient sighs, "I thought you had given me up, and forgotten me--but you look pale and harassed. I could almost think you had grown thinner within the last few days." "Oh! never mind me, Vivian: I have come to speak of yourself. I have left Trevanion; it is settled that I should go to the university--and we all quit town in a few days." "In a few days!--all!--who are all?" "My family--father, mother, uncle cousin, and myself. But, my dear fellow, now let us think seriously what is best to be done for you? I can present you to Trevanion." "Ha!" "But Trevanion is a hard, though an excellent man; and, moreover, as he is always changing the subjects that engross him, in a month or so, he may have nothing to give you. You said you would work--will you consent not to complain if the work cannot be done in kid gloves? Young men who have risen high in the world have begun, it is well known, as reporters to the press. It is a situation of respectability, and in request, and not easy to obtain, I fancy; but still--" Vivian interrupted me hastily-- "Thank you a thousand times! but what you say confirms a resolution I had taken before you came. I shall make it up with my family, and return home." "Oh! I am so really glad. How wise in you!" Vivian turned away his head abruptly-- "Your pictures of family life and domestic peace, you see," he said, "seduced me more than you thought. When do you leave town?" "Why, I believe, early next week." "So soon!" said Vivian, thoughtfully. "Well, perhaps I may ask you yet to introduce me to Mr Trevanion; for--who knows?--my family and I may fall out again. But I will consider. I think I have heard you say that this Trevanion is a very old friend of your father's, or uncle's?" "He, or rather Lady Ellinor, is an old friend of both." "And therefore would listen to your recommendations of me. But perhaps I may not need them. So you have left--left of your own accord--a situation that seemed more enjoyable, I should think, than rooms in a college;--left--why did you leave?" And Vivian fixed his bright eyes, full and piercingly, on mine. "It was only for a time, for a trial, that I was there," said I, evasively: "out at nurse, as it were, till the Alma Mater opened her arms--_alma_ indeed she ought to be to my father's son."