that pure enthusiasm for what is fresh and good; you, who can even admire
a thing like Varney, because, through the tawdry man, you recognize art
and skill, even though wasted in spoiling canvas; you, who have only to
live as you feel, in order to diffuse blessings all around you,--fie,
foolish boy! you will own your error when I tell you why I come from my
rooms at Gray's Inn to see the walls in which Hampden, a plain country
squire like you, shook with plain words the tyranny of eight hundred
years."

"Ardworth, I will not wait your time to tell me what took you yonder. I
have penetrated a secret that you, not kindly, kept from me. This
morning you rose and found yourself famous; this evening you have come to
gaze upon the scene of the career to which that fame will more rapidly
conduct you--"

"And upon the tomb which the proudest ambition I can form on earth must
content itself to win! A poor conclusion, if all ended here!"

"I am right, however," said Percival, with boyish pleasure. "It is you
whose praises have just filled my ears. You, dear, dear Ardworth! How
rejoiced I am!"

Ardworth pressed heartily the hand extended to him: "I should have
trusted you with my secret to-morrow, Percival; as it is, keep it for the
present. A craving of my nature has been satisfied, a grief has found
distraction. As for the rest, any child that throws a stone into the
water with all his force can make a splash; but he would be a fool indeed
if he supposed that the splash was a sign that he had turned a stream."

Here Ardworth ceased abruptly; and Percival, engrossed by a bright idea,