"Sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another; wherever my truant
fancy leads me. I prefer such spots as are most remote from the haunts of
men, unknown to cockneys; and so long as there is a river within reach of
my lodging, I can make myself tolerably happy with a punt and a
fishing-rod, and contrive to forget my cares."

"You have not been to Lidford since I left England, I suppose?"

"Yes; I was at Heatherly a week or two in the winter. Poor old David
Forster would not let me alone until I went down to him. He was ill, and
in a very dismal condition altogether, abandoned by the rest of his
cronies, and a close prisoner in the house which has so many painful
associations for him. It was a work of charity to bear him company."

"Did you see Captain Sedgewick, or Marian, while you were down there?"

"No. I should have liked to have called upon the kind old Captain; but
Forster was unconscionably exacting,--there was no getting away from
him."

Gilbert stepped with his friend until late that night, smoking and
drinking a mild mixture of brandy and soda-water, and talking of the
things that had been doing on this side of the globe while he had been on
the other. No more was said about Marian, or Gilbert's plans for the
future. In his own mind that one subject reigned supreme, shutting out
every other thought; but h did not want to make himself a nuisance to
John Saltram, and he knew that there are bounds to the endurance of which
friendship is capable.