sent himself at the Hall, free not only from all the painful, but almost from all the awkward, parts of his rusticity. He rode with Mr Chisney, walked with his wife, and he and his father spent two or three evenings in almost every week at Thorwold. Rarely, perhaps, have the exterior manners of any young man undergone more remarkable improvement in so short a space. And, in truth, when Reginald himself looked back, and compared himself at the beginning of that year's autumn with what he had been at the termination of its spring, the difference was so great, that he might be pardoned for contemplating the rapidity of his own progress, with a very considerable share of complacency. In one point of view, at the least, it was fortunate for Reginald that the young Squire and his lady were left so much alone during the greater part of that summer; for, had their house been from the beginning what it was towards the close of the season, he must have either derived fewer advantages from frequenting it, or purchased them at the expence of undergoing a much severer species of tutorage. The shooting season had commenced several weeks, ere Mr Frederick Chisney, the brother of the Squire, arrived at Thorwold. He was several years younger than Mr Chisney; but he was already, in his own opinion, and in that of many others, the finer gentleman of the two. Every body indeed is acquainted with that common saying, which has, time out of mind, furnished the vanity of cadets with some consolation for the comparative lightness of their purses; and in a limited sense, at the least, there is no question the saying has its origin in observation. Younger brothers, all the world over, have their wits sharpened by the circumstances of their situation; while the consciousness of perfect security has a natural tendency to encourage indolence of mind, as well as repose of demeanour. But, on the other hand, is there nothing to refine in the sense of importance and power? Do not these things exert, over happily-born spirits at least, a certain soothing and ennobling influence? And while the cadet has briskness for the bustle through which it is his business to fight his way, has not your elder brother, generally speaking, something far better adapted for the calmer sphere in which his birth has placed him? Though he be not, in the ballroom or mess-room sense of the word, the finer gentleman, is he not in reality the more mild in disposition of the two, the more gentle in bearing? 66 But Frederick Chisney was the younger brother all over,full to the brim of all that vivacity and restlessness of spirit, which your terrarum Domini" are so much the better for wanting-a bold, gay, sprightly, and ardent youth. He had already spent two years at Christ-Church, and having gone thither from Eton, was at twenty as free from exterior awkwardnesses as any man of forty, and, in his own opinion, quite as knowing in men and manners, as he could have been in reality, if double his years had passed over his head. He was a considerable coxcomb to boot-but, to be sure, he had whatever excuse a handsome person may furnish a coxcomb withal. Though tall and athletic in his form, his limbs had not as yet acquired the knit symmetry of manhood, but his countenance wanted nothing of its confidence. His complexion was remarkably fair and brilliant, and you might have sought all England over for a pair of brighter eyes. To a strong taste for literature, and intellectual accomplishments much more varied and extensive than are generally to be found among young Oxonians, even of the highest promise, Frederick Chisney united a violent passion for every manly sport and exercise, which few could have indulged as he had always done, without retarding the progress of mental improvement. But his keen spirit ever found its relaxation, not in repose, but in change of exertion. Such was he-such at least he seemed to bewhen fortune threw Reginald Dalton in his way. Our youth had already become in some sort the Ami du Maison at Thorwold-hall, when Frederick Chisney arrived there. CHAPTER V. THIS gay fellow regarded Reginald at first, as might have been expected, very much du haut en bas. For although a great many tastes and accomplishments were common to them both, Reginald was obviously and extremely deficient in respect to other matters, on his own proficiency in which Frederick chiefly piqued himself. The Oxonian, therefore, began with quizzing the rustic; but he took all this with an unsuspecting simplicity, which, ere long, not only shamed Frederick out of his malicious amusement, but really excited feelings of kindness in his heart. But above all, he found Reginald useful. Frederick, although he considered himself at least as much a man as his brother, nevertheless could not help, when they were together, feeling some |