companionship of this kind may subject you to; strong enough to
bear his burden as well as your own; strong enough, also,--ay, and
alert and vigilant enough,--to prevent those influences harming the
others whom you have undertaken to guide, and whose lots are
confided to you? Pause well and consider maturely, for this must
not depend upon a generous impulse. I think that your cousin would
now pass under your charge with a sincere desire for reform; but
between sincere desire and steadfast performance there is a long
and dreary interval, even to the best of us. Were it not for
Roland, and had I one grain less confidence in you, I could not
entertain the thought of laying on your young shoulders so great a
responsibility. But every new responsibility to an earnest nature
is a new prop to virtue; and all I now ask of you is to remember
that it is a solemn and serious charge, not to be undertaken
without the most deliberate gauge and measure of the strength with
which it is to be borne.

In two days we shall be in London.
Yours, my Anachronism, anxiously and fondly,
A. C.

I was in my own room while I read this letter, and I had just finished
it when, as I looked up, I saw Roland standing opposite to me. "It is
from Austin," said he; then he paused a moment, and added, in a tone
that seemed quite humble, "May I see it,--and dare I?" I placed the
letter in his hands, and retired a few paces, that he might not think I
watched his countenance while he read it. And I was only aware that he
had come to the end by a heavy, anxious, but not disappointed sigh.
Then I turned, and our eyes met; and there was something in Roland's
look, inquiring and, as it were, imploring. I interpreted it at once.