s Davis first, he might have saved a great deal of time. He had accounted to himself for her sudden silence the evening before. Mrs. Lister was within hearing and her morbid at

or and rested her slippered feet on a footstool. The excitement had disappeared from he

n anger. Thomasina either would or could tell him noth

is the source of her impression. But she is a newcomer, and-" Thomasina hesitated, flushed, and then said exactly what she had dete

speak of him frankly; th

e of Basil's writing would probably not have been appreciated by one brought up on Maria Edgeworth. But she loved him

in that while Mrs. Lister had risen up like a stone

Everman c

lly. He was a very dignified, polite little boy, and

y young man, of whom this whole community ought to be proud, was chased round the leg of the piano and that he had gray eyes. What do you

homasina, smiling. "I dare say many of the facts

he farther the B. & N. train drew him from Waltonville,

revelation was almost incredible. It was not that the facts were so startling, but that Mary Alcestis could have remained silent a

ry, he was still more astonis

ngest way at nothing. She used to be afraid when he was a little boy that he might go blind, he looked at her so steadily. He never cried loudly like other children when he was tired or hungry, but sat with great tears rolling down his cheeks. Even as a

He didn't seem to care whether he ate or not. He didn't come to breakfast on time, and he would not go to bed at th

sident of the college. He would not even open his mathematics. He said life was too short. I believe that

!" repeated

ce or twice my father p

ked where he was, we had to-to invent. My father used to try to pretend that it made no difference, that he had done his

colored settlement and hear them sing. It was as

evil things!" pro

ear him singing them afterwards in his ro

or gamble, or do an

hough, that my father fetched him from the tavern once. He used to sin

ssions, different impressions from those of humdrum people. Did you never suspect that he was trying to write? Did

go away, but he took him at his word. Then we tried to find him again and again. His going away killed my father. All the clues led nowhere. We didn't hear anything about him t

, it is all

t people would find out about Basil, that they would put this and that together. I have thought of Mr

ing, what cou

d suddenly to rep

hall never get over grieving for him. If he had done as my father wish

y than ordinary mortals get out of a month. And you must learn not to

as unusually quiet and that she had seen little of Richard since Commencement. In the thought of him she found at last her accustomed consolation. He

at Thomasina's. Mrs. Lister put

ng but his musical talent. She had an annoying fashion of assuming that pe

f his little trunk lay his books, his tiny Euripides and his ?schylus with their poor print and their many notes. How strange it was

rner stood his stick, that stick which he had doubtless carried with him into the Ragged Mountains. Dr. Lister saw him suddenly, his cane held aloft like a banner, his eyes shining. He felt a chi

o shake off the vague, uncanny sensations which he felt; he said to h

ily album; he must ask Mary Alcestis to find it for him. He saw the boy, eager, alert, with a sort of strangeness about him as his sister had said, the unnatural product of this puritanic household in which he was set to grow. He did not like regular meals-even Dr. Lister had hated them in his youth. He had not liked to go to bed w

certain, indeed, that immortality was desirable. But now there swept into his heart, along with a passionate grief for this forgotten lad, a passionate demand that he should not be

The search could lead nowhere; the boy was dead and all his unborn works had perished with him