Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-03
THE MlSADVENTURES
OF JOHN NICHOLSON.
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
CHAPTER V-CoNrrNuEp.

with the same surprising pathos.
The keen frosty air; the low, rosy,
wintry sun; the castle, hailing him
like an old acquaintance; the names
OF friends on door-plates; the sight OF
friends whom he seemed to recognize,
and whom he eagerly avoided, in the
streets; the pleasant chant of the
North country accent; the dome of
st. Georges reminding him of his last
penltential moments in the lane, and
OF that King of Glory whose name had
echoed ever since in the saddest cor
ner OF his memory; and the cutters
where he had learned to slide, and
the shop where he had bought his
,kates, and the stones on which he
had trod, and the ratings in which
he had ratified his clachan as he went
to school; and all those thous-
and and one nameless particu-
lars, which the eye sees without
noting, which the memory
keeps indeed yet without knowing,
and which, taken one with another,
build up for us the aspect of the place
that we call home: all these besieged
him as he went with both delight
and sadness.
His first visit was for Houston, who
had house on Regents Terrace, kept
for him in old days by an aunt. The
door was opened Ito his surprise)
upon the chain, and a voice asked
him from within what he wanted.
IL want Mr.. Houston--Mr. Alan
Houston, :" said he.
Sand who are YEP" said the voice.
"This is most extraordinary,
thought John; and then aloud he told
his name.
mo young Mr.. JohnP" cried the
voice, with a sudden increase of
Scotch accent, testifying to a friend
lier feeling.
1.-The very same" said John.
And the old butler removed his
defences, remarking only, II thocht
ye were that man." But his master
was not there; he was staying, it APP
peared, at the house in Murrayfield,
and though the butler would have
been glad enough to have taken his
place and given all the news of the
family, John, struck with a little |
chill, was eager to be gone. Only, |
the door was scarce closed again, be- |
fore he regretted that he had not
asked about ''that man."
He was to pay no more visits till |
he had seen his father and made all |
well at home. Alan had been the
only possible exception, and John
had not time to go as far as Murray
field. But here he was on Regents
Terrace. There was nothing to pre-
vent him going around the end of
the hill, and looking from without on
the Mackenzies' house. As he went.
he reflected that Flora must now be a
woman of near his own age, and it
was within the bounds of possibility
that she was married; but this dis
honorable doubt he damned down.
There was the house, sure enough:
but the door was of another color. and
what was this-two door platesp He
drew nearer. The top one bore, with
dignifed simplicity, the words: "Mr.
Proudfoot-" The lower one was
more explicit, and informed the
that here was likewise the
abode of "Mr. j. A. Dunlop Proudfoot.
The Proudfoots must be
rich, for no advocate could look to
have much business in so remote a
quarter; and John hated them for
their wealth and their name, and for
the sake of the house they desecrated
with their presence. He remembered
} Proudfoot he had seen at school.
lot known; little, whey-faced urchin,
The despicable member of some lower
lass. Could IL be this abortion that
lad climbed to be an advocate, and
low lived in the birthplace of Flora
Ind the home of Johns tendersst
The chill that had first
eized upon him when he heard of
Iouston's absence deepened and
truck inward. For moment, as he
TODD under the doors of that es-
ranged house, and looked east and
vest along the solitary pavement of
he Royal Terrace, where not cat
vac stirring, the sense of solitude and
lesolation took him by the throat,
nd he wished himself in San Fran
isco.
And then the figure he made,
nth his decent portliness, his ]
yhiskers, the money in his purse,
he excellent cigar that he &
ow lighted, REQUIRED to his mind in I
comparison with that of 6
certain maddened lad, who, on GER 6
ain spring Sunday ten years before,
nd in the hour OF church-time silence, G
ad stolen from that city by the Glas- 7
ow road. In the face of these 7
hanges it was impious to doubt for b
mes kindness. All would be we'll Y
ct; the Mackenzies would be found. +
lora, younger and lovlier and kinder v
ian before; Alan would be found and
ould so nicely discriminate his be- "
avior as to have grown, on the one
and, into a valued friend of Mr.. 81
icholson's, and to have remained, 1
pom the other, of that exact shade of
vitality which John desired in his n
And so. once more. John m
II to work discounting the delightful ]