unquiet and perturbed in his present than in his past seclusion. Science
this time failed even to distract. In the midst of august meditations--
of close experiment--some haunting angry thought from the far world
passed with rude shadow between Intellect and Truth--the heart eclipsed
the mind. The fact is, that Darrell's genius was essentially formed for
Action. His was the true orator's temperament, with the qualities that
belong to it--the grasp of affairs--the comprehension of men and states
--the constructive, administrative faculties. In such career, and in
such career alone, could he have developed all his powers, and achieved
an imperishable name. Gradually as science lost its interest, he
retreated from all his former occupations, and would wander for long
hours over the wild unpopulated landscapes round him. As if it were his
object to fatigue the body, and in that fatigue tire out the restless
brain, he would make his gun the excuse for rambles from sunrise to
twilight over the manors he had purchased years ago, lying many miles off
from Fawley. There are times when a man who has passed his life in
cultivating his mind finds that the more he can make the physical
existence predominate, the more he can lower himself to the rude vigour
of the gamekeeper, or his day-labourer--why, the more he can harden his
nerves to support the weight of his reflections.

In these rambles he was not always alone. Fairthorn contrived to
insinuate himself much more than formerly into his master's habitual
companionship. The faithful fellow had missed Darrell so sorely in that
long unbroken absence of five years, that on recovering him, Fairthorn
seemed resolved to make up for lost time. Departing from his own habits,
he would, therefore, lie in wait for Guy Darrell--creeping out of a
bramble or bush, like a familiar sprite; and was no longer to be awed
away by a curt syllable or a contracted brow. And Darrell, at first
submitting reluctantly, and out of compassionate kindness to the flute-