score of hypocrisy, for the most brilliant of artists may be as Bohemian as he likes. But though I have a decided fancy that way, I misdoubt my talent; and unless a gentleman be a genius, he should not take to painting."
"No doubt of it," returned Moray, who, though in theory he admired artists, and would have consecrated chapels to a Titian or a Velasquez, by no means fancied the idea of a kinsman of his own failing, as he believed that Mr Venables was bound to fail.
"Well then, sir," said Jack, rather ruefully, "I come back to ray starting-point, – that I have the world before me, and the question is as to the direction to steer. To think that at this very instant I may be hesitating at the embranchement of a dozen of paths – that it is eleven to one that I strike a wrong one, and miss the way that leads straight up to fortune! Oh for a glimmering of your Celtic second-sight! Possibly Mr Ross would be the person to advise with."
Moray laughed. "If you really are standing where a dozen paths branch off, you cannot be blamed tor not seeing the invisible. But so far as I can gather, you are in the middle of a mist, and are inclined to trust to your luck to grope your way out of it. And there, perhaps, I, who am a Highlander, can help you, as Donald has helped you in similar difficulties ere now."
Then Mr Moray spoke out in a manner that took his nephew altogether aback. When Moray placed himself or his means at another's disposal, he was not a man to do things by halves.
"I like you, Jack, as you may have partly remarked; and I'm an old fellow without any son of my own. Oh yes, I know I have a daughter, and I am never likely to forget it; but so far as present appearances go, Grace will be richer than may be altogether good for her. In any case, I have enough and to spare. I don't mean to adopt you. I don't propose to treat you as my son and heir. I would not do any such injury to a spirited young man as to deprive him of all incentives to exertion. But setting you straight in some direction, and giving you a lift along, is a different affair altogether. I loved my wife well – I lost her only too soon; and I should be very happy to do something for her kinsman. The question is, What? I am sorry now that I should have disposed of my interests in the East; but I was in haste to come back and give Grace a home here. I have good friends there still, however. But, like me, you would have to begin the climb at the beginning; and money is more slowly made than it used to be."
He paused a moment, expecting very possibly that Jack would nevertheless jump at the suggestion, remembering his after-dinner speech some days before, when apostrophising the show of plate on the buffet. And had he made such an offer then, Jack would most certainly have eagerly accepted. Now the young man would have been more surprised at his own hesitation, had not his mind been illuminated by a sudden self-revelation. Brought to the point and spurred to the leap, he could not decide at once to leave his cousin behind him. Indefinite exile meant absolute separation. He hummed and hawed, and was sensible of a confusion which brought unwonted blushes to his comely countenance.
Nor was his embarrassment diminished by Moray's demeanour. That gentleman had liked his
