creature beneath the swine in intelligence and manners, merciless, as he went by with his eyes on the dust, in his ragged clothes.  He and his father seemed to pass down an avenue of jeers and contempt, and contempt from such animals as these!  This putrid filth, molded into human shape, made only to fawn on the rich and beslaver them, thinking no foulness too foul if it were done in honor of those in power and authority; and no refined cruelty of contempt too cruel if it were contempt of the poor and humble and oppressed; it was to this obscene and ghastly throng that he was something to be pointed at.  And these men and women spoke of sacred things, and knelt before the awful altar of God, before the altar of tremendous fire, surrounded as they professed by Angels and Archangels and all the Company of Heaven; and in their very church they had one aisle for the rich and another for the poor.  And the species was not peculiar to Caermaen; the rich business men in London and the successful brother author were probably amusing themselves at the expense of the poor struggling creature they had injured and wounded; just as the “healthy” boy had burst into a great laugh when the miserable sick cat cried out in bitter agony, and trailed its limbs slowly, as it crept away to die.  Lucian looked into his own life and his own will; he saw that in spite of his follies, and his want of success, he had not been consciously malignant, he had never deliberately aided in oppression, or looked on it with enjoyment and approval, and he felt that when he lay dead beneath the earth, eaten by swarming worms, he would be in a purer company than now, when he lived amongst human creatures.  And he was to call this loathsome beast, all sting and filth, brother!  “I had rather call the devils my brothers,” he said in his heart, “I would fare better in hell.”  Blood was in his eyes, and as he looked up the sky seemed of blood, and the earth burned with fire.

The sun was sinking low on the mountain when he set out on the way again.  Burrows, the doctor, coming home in his trap, met him a little lower on the road, and gave him a friendly good-night.

“A long way round on this road, isn’t it?” said the doctor.  “As you have come so far, why don’t you try the short cut across the fields?  You will find it easily enough; second stile on the left hand, and then go straight ahead.”

He thanked Dr. Burrows and said he would try the short cut, and Burrows span on homeward.  He was a gruff and honest bachelor, and often felt very sorry for the lad, and wished he could help him.  As he drove on, it suddenly occurred to him that Lucian had an awful look on his face, and he was sorry he had not asked him to jump in, and to come to supper.  A hearty slice of beef, with strong ale, whisky and soda afterwards, a good pipe, and certain Rabelaisian tales which the doctor had treasured for many years, would have done the poor fellow a lot of good, he was certain.  He half turned round on his seat, and looked to see if Lucian were still in sight, but he had passed the corner, and the doctor drove on, shivering a little; the mists were beginning to rise from the wet banks of the river.