“Oh, no, man! no!” replied his cousin:  “it does not run in our blood; we have all fighting drops in our veins; and I know you can fight well enough when it suits your purpose.  As for that matter, I might think myself a fool for fighting in behalf of a man who won’t fight in his own behalf; but it is his cause, not himself, Harry, I fought for.”

“Bubbles, bubbles, Lennard,” replied the other, “’tis but a mere name!”

“And what do we all fight for, from the cradle to the grave?” demanded his cousin—­“bubbles, bubbles, Harry.  Through England and Ireland, not to say Scotland, there will be tomorrow morning, which I take it is Sunday, full five thousand priests busily engaged in telling their hearers, that love, glory, avarice, and ambition are nothing but—­bubbles!  So I am but playing the same game as the rest.  I wish to Heaven the boat would come round though, for I am beginning to think it is as great a bubble as the rest.—­Run down, Wilton, my boy,” he said, speaking to the youth that held him by the hand—­“run down to that point, and see if you can discover the boat creeping round under the cliffs.”

The boy instantly darted off without speaking, and the two gentlemen watched him in silence.  After a moment, however, the shorter of the two spoke, with his eyes still fixed on the child, and the slight sneer curling his lip—­“A fine boy that, Lennard!” he said.  “A child of love, of course!”

“Doubtless,” answered the other; “but you will understand he is not mine.—­It is a friend’s child that I have promised to do the best for.”

“He is wondrous like your brother Morton,” rejoined his companion:  “it needs no marriage certificate to tell us whose son he is.”

“No; God speed the poor boy!” replied the other gentleman, “he is like his father enough.  I must do what I can for him, though Heaven knows what I am to do either for him or myself.  It is long ere he can be a soldier, and I am not much accustomed to taking heed of children.”

“Where is his mother?” demanded the cousin:  “whatever be her rank, she is most likely as rich as you are, and certainly better able to take care of him.”

“Pshaw!” replied the other—­“I might look long enough before I found her.  The boy has never known anything about her either, so that would not do.  But here he comes, here he comes, so say no more about it.”

As he spoke, the boy bounded up, exclaiming, “I see the boat, I see the boat coming round the rock!” and the moment after, a tolerable-sized fishing boat was seen rounding the little point that we have mentioned; and the two cousins, with the boy, descended to the water’s edge.  During the few minutes that elapsed before the boat came up to the little landing-place where they stood, the cousins shook hands together, and bade each other adieu.

“Well, God speed you, Harry!” said the one; “you have not failed me at this pinch, though you have at many another.”