excite any curiosity.'

'By no means. He always has a reason.'

'A plausible one.'

'More than plausible,' cried James, excitement sparkling in his vivid
black eyes. 'It happens that this is the very book that you would
most rejoice to see distasteful to him--low morality, false
principles, morbid excitement, not a line that ought to please a
healthy mind.'--

'Yet it has interest enough for you.'

'I am not Fitzjocelyn.'

'You know how to plead for him.'

'I speak simple truth,' bluntly answered James, running his hand
through his black hair, to the ruin of the morning smoothness, so
that it, as well as the whole of his quick, dark countenance seemed
to have undergone a change from sunny south to stormy north in the
few moments since his first appearance.

After a short silence, Lord Ormersfield turned to him, saying 'I have
been begging a favour of my aunt, and I have another to ask of you,'
and repeating his explanation, begged him to undertake the tutorship
of his son.

'I shall not be at liberty at Easter,' said James, 'I have all but