still showed signs of the magnificent physique of his vigorous
manhood. "Sometimes in prayer, sometimes in meditation, and
sometimes in reading the Scriptures," with his dog beside him,
Captain Thomas Borrow, now sixty-five, was preparing for the end that
he felt to be approaching. He frequently meditated upon what was to
become of his younger son George, who held his father in such awe as
to feel ill at ease when alone with him.

One day the inevitable interrogation took place. "What do you
propose to do?" and the equally inevitable reply followed, "I really
do not know what I shall do." In the course of a somewhat lengthy
cross-examination, Captain Borrow discovered that his son knew the
Armenian tongue, for which he very cunningly strove to enlist his
father's interest by telling him that in Armenia was Mount Ararat,
whereon the ark rested. Captain Borrow also discovered that his son
could not only shoe a horse, but also make the shoes; but, what was
most important, he found that George had learned "very little" law.
When asked if he thought he could support himself by Armenian or his
"other acquirements," the younger man was not very hopeful, and
horrified the old soldier by suggesting that if all else failed there
was always suicide.

The dying man was thus left to yearn for the return of his elder son,
in whom all his hopes lay centred. John appears to have been by no
means dutiful to his parents in the matter of letters. For six
months he left them unacquainted even with his address in Paris,
where he was still copying Old Masters in the Louvre.

After their talk the father and younger son seem to have come to a
better understanding. George would frequently read aloud from the