CHAP. XI.—BROODING.

ASTER GEORGP’S surprises were not all at

I an end even yet. He told me the next morn-
ing that Mr. Prickard had commissioned him to
inform me that, considering that I had been the
means of saving him from great loss and possible
bodily hurt, he intended to shew his sense of it in
a substantial form. I confess that here my ideas
instantly jumped to the re-purchase of Monna,
even though I knew at the same moment that it
was an impossible plan. Several gentlemen of the
neighbourhood, Master George continued, hearing
that I was left entirely without means, had contri-
buted ; and, in short, there was a sum large enough
to educate me for any calling that I might wish to
follow, or to set me up in any other mode of life
that I might prefer. Then my old longing to bea '
schoolmaster blazed up again ; indeed it had always
been there, only choked and kept under by force of
circumstances. If I might study to become a

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