Denzil's uncle--Samuel Quarrier--busied in establishing a
sugar-refinery in his native town, received the young man with
amiable welcome, and entertained him for half a year. The ex-seaman
then resolved to join his parents abroad, as a good way of looking
about him. He found his mother on her death-bed. In consequence of
her decease, Denzil became possessed of means amply sufficient for a
bachelor. As far as ever from really knowing what he desired to be
at, he began to make a show of interesting himself in timber.
Perhaps, after all, commerce was his _forte_. This, then, might be
called a second endeavour to establish himself.

Mr. Quarrier laughed at the idea, and would not take it seriously.
And of course was in the right, for Denzil, on pretence of studying
forestry, began to ramble about Scandinavia like a gentleman at
large. Here, however, he did ultimately hit on a pursuit into which
he could throw himself with decided energy. The old Norsemen laid
their spell upon him; he was bitten with a zeal for saga-hunting,
studied vigorously the Northern tongues, went off to Iceland,
returned to rummage in the libraries of Copenhagen, began to
translate the Heimskringla, planned a History of the Vikings.
Emphatically, this kind of thing suited him. No one was less likely
to turn out a bookworm, yet in the study of Norse literature he
found that combination of mental and muscular interests which was
perchance what he had been seeking.

But his father was dissatisfied; a very practical man, he saw in
this odd enthusiasm a mere waste of time. Denzil's secession from
the Navy had sorely disappointed him; constantly he uttered his wish
that the young man should attach himself to some vocation that
became a gentleman. Denzil, a little weary for the time of his