"Do you read none of the story-books I bought for you?" "Sometimes! but one can't read all day." "Ah! Sidney, if ever we should part, perhaps you will love me no longer!" "Don't say so," said Sidney. "But we sha'n't part, Philip?" Philip sighed, and turned away as his brother leaped into bed. Something whispered to him that danger was near; and as it was, could Sidney grow up, neglected and uneducated; was it thus that he was to fulfil his trust? CHAPTER IX. "But oh, what storm was in that mind!"--CRABBE. _Ruth_ While Philip mused, and his brother fell into the happy sleep of childhood, in a room in the principal hotel of the town sat three persons, Arthur Beaufort, Mr. Spencer, and Mr. Blackwell. "And so," said the first, "he rejected every overture from the Beauforts?" "With a scorn I cannot convey to you!" replied the lawyer. "But the fact is, that he is evidently a lad of low habits; to think of his being a sort of helper to a horse dealer! I suppose, sir, he was always in the stables in his father's time. Bad company depraves the taste very soon; but that is not the worst. Sharp declares that the man he was talking with, as I told you, is a common swindler. Depend on it, Mr. Arthur, he is incorrigible; all we can do is to save the brother." "It is too dreadful to contemplate!" said Arthur, who, still ill and languid, reclined on a sofa. "It is, indeed," said Mr. Spencer; "I am sure I should not know what to do with such a character; but the other poor child, it would be a mercy to get hold of him." "Where is Mr. Sharp?" asked Arthur. "Why," said the lawyer, "he has followed Philip at a distance to find out his lodgings, and learn if his brother is with him. Oh! here he is!" and Blackwell's companion in the earlier part of the evening entered. "I have found him out, sir," said Mr. Sharp, wiping his forehead. "What a fierce 'un he is! I thought he would have had a stone at my head; but we officers are used to it; we does our duty, and Providence makes our heads unkimmon hard!" "Is the child with him?" asked Mr. Spencer. "Yes, sir." "A little, quiet, subdued boy?" asked the melancholy inhabitant of the Lakes. "Quiet! Lord love you! never heard a noisier little urchin! There they were, romping and romping in the garden, like a couple of gaol birds." "You see," groaned Mr. Spencer, "he will make that poor child as bad as himself." "What shall us do, Mr. Blackwell?" asked Sharp, who longed for his brandy and water. "Why, I was thinking you might go to the horse-dealer the first thing in the morning; find out whether Philip is really thick with the swindler; and, perhaps, Mr. Stubmore may have some influence with him, if, without saying who he is--" "Yes," interrupted Arthur, "do not expose his name." "You could still hint that he ought to be induced to listen to his friends and go with them. Mr. Stubmore may be a respectable man, and---"