Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

RAVENSHOE HALL, DURING ALL THIS. 253
that cape there was nothing but water for three thousand weary
miles. The scene was beautiful enough, but very melancholy;
a long coast-line, trending away into dim distance, on a quiet
sunny afternoon, is very melancholy. Indeed, far more melancholy than the same place in a howling gale: when the nearest
promontory only is dimly visible, a black wall, echoing the thunder of bursting waves, and when sea, air, and sky, like the three
furies, are rushing on with mad, destructive unanimity.
They lay, these two, on the short turf, looking westward; and,
after a time, John Marston broke silence. He spoke very low
and quietly, and without looking at William.
"I have something very heavy on my mind, William. I am
not a fool, with a morbid conscience, but I have been very
wrong. I have done what I never can undo. I loved that fellow, William!"
William said, " Ay."
-"I know what you would say. You would say, that every
one who ever knew Charles loved him; and you are right. He
was so utterly unselfish, so entirely given up to trying to win
others, that every one loved him, and could not help it. The
cleverest man in England, with all his cleverness, could not gain
so many friends as Charles."
William seemed to think this such a self-evident proposition,
that he did not think it worth while to say anything.
"And Charles was not clever. And what makes me mad
with myselffis this. I had influence over him, and I abused it.
I was not gentle enough with him. I used to make fun of him,
and be flippant, and priggish, and dictatorial with him. God
help me! And now he has taken some desperate step, and, in
fear of my ridicule, has not told me of it. I felt sure he would
come to me, but I have lost hope now. May God forgive me,
God forgive me!"
In a few moments, William said, "If you pause to, think,
Marston, you will see how unjust you are to yourself. He could
not be afraid of me, and yet he has never come near me."
"Of course not," said Marston. "You seem hardly to know
him so well as I. He fears that you would make him take money, and that he would be a burden on you. I never expected
that he would come back to you. He knows that you would
never leave him. He knows, as well as you know yourself, that
you would sacrifice all your time and your opportunities of education to him. And, by being dependent on you, he would be
dependent on Father Mackworth, -the only man in the world
he dislikes and distrusts."
William uttered a form of speech concerning the good father,
which is considered by foreigners to be merely a harmless nation