of the whole house.

There remain but two others to be mentioned, and the Clifford family will
be complete, as constituted at present. The first was the youngest son of
the aged man at the head of the table. He had inherited his father's
features, but there was a dash of recklessness blended with the manifest
frankness of his expression, and in his blue eyes there was little trace of
shrewd calculation or forethought. Even during the quiet midday meal they
flashed with an irrepressible mirthfulness, and not one at the table
escaped his aggressive nonsense. His brother, two or three years his
senior, was of a very different type, and seemed somewhat overshadowed by
the other's brilliancy. He had his mother's dark eyes, but they were deep
and grave, and he appeared reserved and silent, even in the home circle.
His bronzed features were almost rugged in their strength, but a heavy
mustache gave a touch of something like manly beauty to his rather sombre
face. You felt instinctively that he was one who would take life
seriously--perhaps a little too seriously--and that, whether it brought him
joy or sorrow, he would admit the world but charily to his confidence.

Burtis, the youngest brother, had gone through college after a sort of
neck-or-nothing fashion, and had been destined for one of the learned
professions; but, while his natural ability had enabled him to run the
gantlet of examinations, he had evinced such an unconquerable dislike for
restraint and plodding study that he had been welcomed back to the paternal
acres, which were broad enough for them all. Mr. Clifford, by various
means, had acquired considerable property in his day, and was not at all
disappointed that his sons should prefer the primal calling to any other,
since it was within his power to establish them well when they were ready
for a separate domestic life. It must be admitted, however, that thus far
the rural tastes of Burtis were chiefly for free out-of-door life, with its