"Can you understand it, child ?" Richard informed her that when she read he could.
"Well, then, my squire," she touched his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair, "learn as quick as you can not to be all hither and yon with a hundred different attractions, as I was before I met a wise man to guide me." "Is my father very wise ?" Richard asked.
"I think so," the lady emphasized her individual judgment.
"Do you--" Richard broke forth, and was stopped by a beating of his heart.
"Do I--what ?" she calmly queried.
"I was going to say, do you--I mean, I love him so much." Lady Blandish smiled and slightly coloured.
They frequently approached this theme, and always retreated from it; always with the same beating of heart to Richard, accompanied by the sense of a growing mystery, which, however, did not as yet generally disturb him.
Life was made very pleasant to him at Raynham, as it was part of Sir Austin's principle of education that his boy should be thoroughly joyous and happy; and whenever Adrian sent in a satisfactory report of his pupil's advancement, which he did pretty liberally, diversions were planned, just as prizes are given to diligent school-boys, and Richard was supposed to have all his desires gratified while he attended to his studies.

The System flourished.

Tall, strong, bloomingly healthy, he took the lead of his companions on land and water, and had more than one bondsman in his service besides Ripton Thompson--the boy without a Destiny! Perhaps the boy with a Destiny was growing up a trifle too conscious of it.

His generosity to his occasional companions was princely, but was exercised something too much in the manner of a prince; and, notwithstanding his contempt for baseness, he would overlook that more easily than an offence to his pride, which demanded an utter servility when it had once been rendered susceptible.

If Richard had his followers he had also his feuds.