enormous fire burning at one end, and silver sconces, filled with wax-lights, illuminating the pictures and cabinets and curiously carved old chairs with which it was furnished.
A groom was waiting for his gig, a footman in livery received his hat and overcoat; ere he was aware of it, he had fallen into the spirit of the surroundings, and, after tenderly kissing his daughter, he offered her his arm up the great staircase. It seemed a natural thing to do there, and he did it without ever reminding himself how little ceremony had been shown to Eleanor when she was a refugee wife under a cloud of social disapproval.
The squire had soon wearied of the couch and was in bed when Jonathan entered his room. He turned his large gray eyes, hollow and with the look of anguish still in them, upon him. The strong man was inexpressibly shocked at the change which had taken place. "My lad! my lad!" he said, with a pitiful solemnity, for he saw a face with the shadow of the grave yet on it, and the hand Aske stretched out was far too weak to return Jonathan's clasp.
Aske did not speak, but he looked in the broad, rosy face of his antagonist, and there
