unconsciously, been also a good teacher to him. He had, with a great
effort, broken through the habits to which he had been so long wedded. A
young waiting-maid now assisted the housekeeper. The meals were no longer
hastily snatched and often eaten standing, but were decently served in
order, and occupied a considerable time, the greater portion of which was
spent in pleasant chat either upon the scenes which Mr. Ormskirk had
witnessed abroad, or in talk on the subjects the boy was studying;
sometimes also upon Mr. Ormskirk's researches and the hopes he entertained
from them; and as Edgar grew older, upon the ordinary topics of the day,
the grievances caused by the heavy taxation, the troubles of the time and
the course of events that had led to them; for, although very ignorant of
contemporary matters, Mr. Ormskirk was well acquainted with the history of
the country up to the time when he had first gone abroad.

The recluse was surprised at the interest he himself came to feel in these
conversations. While endeavouring to open his son's mind he opened his
own, and although when Edgar was not present he pursued his researches as
assiduously as before, he was no longer lost in fits of abstraction, and
would even occasionally walk down to the village when Edgar went to school
in order to continue the conversation upon which they were engaged. Edgar
on his part soon ceased to regard his father as a stranger, and his
admiration for his store of information and learning served as a stimulant
to his studies, for which his previous life had given him but little
liking.

For the last two years, however, his father had seen with regret that
there was but little hope of making a profound scholar of him, and that
unless he himself could discover the solution of the problems that still
eluded him, there was little chance of it being found by his successor.