He was a year older than Lucas, as Jock
was now called to formal outsiders, while Friar John, a reversal of
his cousin's two Christian names, was a school title that sometimes
passed into home use. Friar John then had reached an age open to the
influences of beautiful and sublime scenery, and when the younger
ones only felt the exhilaration of mountain air, and longings to get
as high as possible, his soul began to expand, and fresh revelations
of glory and majesty to take possession of him. He was a very
different person from the rough, awkward lad of eight years back. He
still had the somewhat loutish figure which, in his mother's family,
was the shell of fine-looking men, and he was shy and bashful, but
Eton polish had taken away the rude gruffness, and made his manners
and bearing gentlemanly. His face was honest and intelligent, and he
had a thoroughly good, conscientious disposition; his character stood
high, and he was the only Brownlow of them all who knew the sweets of
being "sent up for good." His aunt could almost watch expression
deepening on his open face, and he was enjoying with soul and mind
even more than with body. Having had the illness later and more
severely than the other two, his strength had not so fully returned,
and he was often glad to rest, admire, and study the subject with his
aunt, to whose service he was specially devoted, while the other two
climbed and explored.
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