RICHARD PROLOGUE. ICHARD TODDLES was lolling on the sofa in his comfortably. furnished chambers in Gray's Inn, at eight o'clock one fine summer's evening towards the end of June. He was a fair-haired young man, aged four and twenty, about five feet seven in height, and a little broader than most people are at his time of life. How it happened that Toddles was enabled to loll on a sofa of his own, was intimately connected with the fact, that from ten till four each day, for six long hours, he toiled and slaved in the service of an ungrateful Government, from whom he received but a miserable pittance of £315 per annum, paid quarterly. True, he was allowed a vacation of six weeks during each year, but this was regarded, both by him and his colleagues, as a pitiful concession extorted from their taskmasters, in order that the young men might be prevented sinking under the immense toil and exertion forced upon them. The chief part of Toddles's manifold duties consisted in warming himself before the office fire for two hours a day in winter, and cooling himself by looking out of the office window for the same time in summer. Add to this an hour for a careful perusal of The Times, for it stands to reason that a Government official should be well posted in the news of the day; an hour for a light lunch and a quiet stroll, in order to cool his heated brain, and we have still two hours, in which Toddles either wrote government missives to old women who wanted pensions on account of their dear sons' gallant services, or granted the right of erection of a new pump in some barracks in one of the West Indian Isles, or else chatted to his colleagues about his work and their own, the result of each consultation considerably assisting the duty to be performed. Occasionally, too, he tried to improve his stamina by wondrous gymnastic feats, in which candour compels us to state that Richard Toddles, owing to his peculiar build, was not such a shining light as his natural love of approbation desired. The reader, however, must not imagine that because Toddles toiled so diligently during six hours of the day, that he was idle during the rest of the time that his eyes were open. On the contrary, we must own that Toddles worked as hard from four till eleven P.M., as he did between the six preceding hours, for our hero was of a peculiar temperament, and longed to know and see everything that was going on in the world. Whenever a new play was produced, Toddles might be seen sitting in the old play-goer's seat, the third row of the pit. He knew every actor and actress by sight, and as he was on bowing terms with a gentleman who had once written a farce which had been gloriously hissed, he felt convinced that the day would come when he should be able to hold converse sweet with almost all the exponents of the British drama. Toddles was lost in deep meditation; for he was wondering where he should spend his summer vacation. Thanks to his economical mode of living-mind, he was not stingy, and although he smoked (a vile habit), yet he scarcely ever drank anything stronger than beer, he was able to spend £30 each year on his enjoyment in the country. There were plenty of houses where he could spend ten days or so, and be very well received, but as Toddles had passed his vacation in this manner for the last five years, he now longed to see a little more of the world before he got married. We may here state that Toddles's large heart caused him to fall in love at least once in six months with a different person, and that just as he was screwing his courage up to the sticking-point, and thinking seriously about a proposal, lo! he would see another face, and be off on the wing at once after his new charmer. Well, then, Toddles having determined to live at his own expense in the country for three weeks, and learn the luxuries, comforts, and moderate charges of that noble and economical institution, a British hotel, had just made up his mind to persuade some friend to travel with him somewhere for a fortnight, when he was suddenly aroused by a violent knock at his door. In an instant he sprang up, re-fastened his waistcoat, and prepared to open his portal to his visitor. He knew it could not be a dun, for he never ran up bills. "Well, Dick, old boy, and how are you?" said the owner of a hand, which grasped Toddles's digits with that fervour which is only acquired by people who live in the country. "What, Tom Stepwell, is it really you? Come in. 'Pon my word I'm very glad to see you." As soon as they were seated, Toddles began: "And what's brought you up to town, Tom?" "I've come to look after a horse I want for next season's hunting." 66 And you mean to tell me that you have come three hundred miles, all the way from Compton, to buy a horse?" "Of course I have. Why, man, I'd go any distance to get a horse. You know that big chestnut mare, with the white fore-feet, I had last season; well, I've been obliged to part with her, her withers were too high for me, and she used to hang too much at her jumps, so I left her at my uncle's farm in Cheshire, and then came on to town." Why you're always going about somewhere. It seems to me that you don't do much work." "Oh, yes, I do occasionally. I don't read as much as you do ; but I'll bet I know more about horses and dogs, and there is far more enjoyment in them than in books." "Ah, that's your way of looking at it. You, Tom, don't know the pleasure of study, the delights of tracing the derivation of a word through half a dozen languages, till you come to the very root." "Not I, indeed. I'd rather trace a fox through half a dozen fields, I can tell you. But however, Dick, let me tell you the chief object of my visit. As soon as I return, I'm going for a short tour in Scotland, and as I should like a good sort of fellow to accompany me, I want you to join me." "The very thing; just what I should like," exclaimed Toddles, jumping up in a supηka state of mind, "I'll go, with the greatest pleasure." "Can you walk well, Dick?" "Ah, I never thought of that. Certainly, I'm not much accustomed to walking, but I've no doubt I shall soon get used to it. Now, Tom, here's the atlas, let's put down our route at once." The two friends sat long over the map that evening, and when Stepwell left Gray's Inn they had decided that on the 23rd July Toddles was to go to Stepwell's house, which was situated at Compton, a village about ten miles from Carlisle. After spending a week there, they were to start for Scotia, each provided with a knapsack, a good |