represented to him that unless he made that sacrifice of his pride, my
mother would be wholly without those little notable uses and objects,
those small household pleasures, so dear to woman; that all society in
the neighborhood would be impossible, and that my mother's time would
hang so heavily on her hands that her only resource would be to muse on
the absent one and fret. Nay, if he persisted in so false a pride, I
told him, fairly, that I should urge my father to leave the Tower.
These representations succeeded; and hospitality had commenced in the
old hall, and a knot of gossips had centred round my mother, groups of
laughing children had relaxed the still brow of Blanche, and the Captain
himself was a more cheerful and social man. My next point was to engage
my father in the completion of the Great Book. "Ah! sir," said I, "give
me an inducement to toil,--a reward for my industry. Let me think, in
each tempting pleasure, each costly vice,--No, no; I will save for the
Great Book! And the memory of the father shall still keep the son from
error. Ah, look you, sir! Mr. Trevanion offered me the loan of L1,500
necessary to commence with; but you generously and at once said 'No; you
must not begin life under the load of debt.' And I knew you were right
and yielded,--yielded the more gratefully that I could not but forfeit
something of the just pride of manhood in incurring such an obligation
to the father of--Miss Trevanion. Therefore I have taken that sum from
you,--a sum that would almost have sufficed to establish your younger
and worthier child in the world forever. To that child let me repay it,
otherwise I will not take it. Let me hold it as a trust for the Great
Book; and promise me that the Great Book shall be ready when your
wanderer returns and accounts for the missing talent."

And my father pished a little, and rubbed off the dew that bad gathered
on his spectacles. But I would not leave him in peace till he had given
me his word that the Great Book should go on a pas de great,--nay, till