LIONEL (passionately). “Which! so offered,--which?--of course neither! But distrusting the tone of my mother’s reply, I sat down, the evening before I left home, and wrote myself to this cruel man. I did not show any letter to my mother,--did not tell her of it. I wrote shortly,--that if he would not accept my gratitude, I would not accept his benefits; that shoeblack I might be,--pickpocket, no! that he need not fear I should disgrace his blood or my name; and that I would not rest till, sooner or later, I had paid him back all that I had cost him, and felt relieved from the burdens of an obligation which--which--” The boy paused, covered his face with his hands, and sobbed. Vance, though much moved, pretended to scold his friend, but finding that ineffectual, fairly rose, wound his arm brother-like round him, and drew him from the arbour to the shelving margin of the river. “Comfort,” then said the Artist, almost solemnly, as here, from the inner depths of his character, the true genius of the man came forth and spoke,--“comfort, and look round; see where the islet interrupts the tide, and how smilingly the stream flows on. See, just where we stand, how the slight pebbles are fretting the wave would the wave if not fretted make that pleasant music? A few miles farther on, and the river is spanned by a bridge, which busy feet now are crossing: by the side of that bridge now is rising a palace; all the men who rule England have room in that palace. At the rear of the palace soars up the old Abbey where kings have their tombs in right of the names they inherit; men, lowly as we, have found tombs there, in right of the names which they made. Think, now, that you stand on that bridge with a boy’s lofty hope, with a man’s steadfast courage; then turn again to that stream, calm with starlight, flowing on towards the bridge,--spite of islet and pebbles.” Lionel made no audible answer, though his lips murmured, but he pressed closer and closer to his friend’s side; and the tears were already dried on his cheek, though their dew still glistened in his eyes. CHAPTER V. Speculations on the moral qualities of the Bandit.--Mr. Vance, with mingled emotions, foresees that the acquisition of the Bandit’s acquaintance may be attended with pecuniary loss. Vance loosened the boat from its moorings, stepped in, and took up the oars. Lionel followed, and sat by the stern. The Artist rowed on slowly, whistling melodiously in time to the dash of the oars. They soon came to the bank of garden-ground surrounding with turf on which fairies might have danced one of those villas never seen out of England. From the windows of the villa the lights gleamed steadily; over the banks, dipping into the water, hung large willows breathlessly; the boat gently brushed aside their pendent boughs, and Vance rested in a grassy cove.