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good.
I'll enter into all sorts of recognizances to keep the peace, was the
reply; but I should have thought you might trust me by this time. It's
that excitable husband of yours that wants disciplining. I'll give him
some sodawater by way of a precaution. Then, when you have sacrificed
to friendship sufficiently, you will lionize Miss Tresilyan? The Castle
first, of course. Shall we meet you there at two?
Harry did not quite see the thing in this light, and looked slightly
disappointed; but he yielded the point, as he always did, and went away
dutifully with his superior officer.
Describe the brother, the latter said, abruptly, when they had gone a
few steps.
Well, I believe he's the most ignorant man in Great Britain, answered
Molyneux: that's his _specialite_. He never had much education; and he
has been trying to forget that little, 'hard all,' ever since he was
eighteen. You remember how our fellows used to laugh at me about my
epistles? I could give him 21lb., and a beating any day. They say, two
men have to stand over him whenever he tries to write a letter, for no
_one_ is strong enough to keep him straight in his spelling and grammar.
If he tries it on alone, he gets bewildered in the second sentence, and
wanders up and down, knocking his head against particles and parts of
speech, like the man in the Maze; and throws up the sponge at last,
utterly beat. Helplessly devoted to his sister, but rather obstinate
with other people, and apt to be sulky sometimes; but goodnatured on
the whole; and drinks _very_ fair.
Oh, he drinks fair, does he? Royston said, meditatively. Has that any
thing to do with his brotherly affection? Every body who is fond of Miss
Tresilyan seems to take to liquor. Annesley was pretty sober till he
knew her. It's rather odd. I don't suppose she encourages them?
Certainly not; at least, I know she has tried to stint Dick in his
brandy very often. It's the only point she has never been able to
carry.
A man must be firm about some one thing, the other remarked, or
there's an end of freeagency altogether. He has no intellects to be
affected by it apparently; and I dare say his health does not suffer
much yet. It's a question of constitution, after all.
He dropped the subject then, and was very silent all the rest of the
morning, till they came to the place of meeting. Somehow or another, it
did not occur to him to mention to Harry what he had seen on the
terrace.
They had not waited long before the three women came slowly up the
zigzags of the path that wound round the Castlehill. Dick Tresilyan had
got his pass signed for the day, and had started off, with his

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