“Would ye that?” he said, in his native tone and accent. He took up the paper where Eddy had laid it down, spread out upon the ling for admiration. “Your little finger would be of no use to me,” he said; “but if ye want this so much, and I don’t want it at all, take it, Saumarez. You are very welcome to it, and it’s little use to me.” Eddy raised his eyes suddenly, with a gleam of eager covetousness, to the other’s face. They were hazel eyes, with a peculiar reddish gleam, and flashed out like lanterns on the steadfast blue of Archie’s look. Then a flush came over his face, and his eyelids, which were full and in many folds, went over these two lamps like curtains drawn. “Rowland, you cover me with shame,” he said, in a voice only half audible, trembling in the air. “What for?” said Archie: as his countenance brightened, his tone went back more and more to that obnoxious Glasgow, which his father so disliked to hear. But though it was Glasgow, there was the very soul of music in Archie’s voice. It became soft and round and dewy and liquid, with the qualities of all melting things in one. “What for? when you want it so much, and me not at all. I have nothing to do with it; and you----” “I have a hundred things to do with it,” cried Eddy, “if I could only tell you!--if you would only understand! But you wouldn’t--an honest fellow like you, that never had a thought you were ashamed of. Oh, yes, it’s life or death, that is about what it is! I could perhaps grapple on, and struggle out. Perhaps--I don’t know if it would be enough---- Oh, I say, Rowland, it’s too great a temptation. Put it away, back in your pocket. What does it matter what becomes of a wretched fellow like me!” There was just enough reality in this struggle against himself to give to Eddy what was generally absent from his best endeavours--an air of truth. He did try to work himself up to the point of refusing this sudden windfall which had dropped into his very hand. “Well,” said Archie, “don’t give it up for that. I have a little more in the bank. It is not very much; it’s about fifty pounds more. My father gives me an allowance. It’s a new thing for me to have all that money, and I just never spend it. What would I spend it upon here? I got two of Rankin’s little dogues--but they’re paid for, the little dashed beasts that have taken to--somebody else--that don’t care a button for me. Come, take it, lad: and if you’ll come to my room when we get home, I’ll give ye a cheque for the rest. If it was to buy anything, ye might demur, and say as well me as you; but when it’s to free you of something on your mind----” “I should think it was on my mind,” Eddy said, not looking up at the other face which beamed benignant upon him. Archie perhaps, was never so much at ease with himself, so conscious of power and faculty, so flattered and gratified during his whole life.