CHAPTER XXXVII. THE TRAVELLER'S JOY.
'Tis true bright hours together told,
And blissful dreams in secret shared,
Serene or solemn, gay or bold,
Still last in fancy unimpaired.
Keble.
To his mother's surprise, Lucas did not betray any discomfiture at
Sydney's adventure, nor even at John's having, of necessity, been
left behind for a week at Fordham after all the other guests were
gone. All he said was that the Friar was in luck.
He himself was much annoyed at the despatch he had received from
Japan. Of course there had been much anxiety as to the way in which
Bobus would receive the tidings of Esther's engagement; and his
mother had written it to him with much tenderness and sympathy. But
instead of replying to her letter, he had written only to Lucas, so
entirely ignoring the whole matter that except for some casual
allusion to some other subject, it would have been supposed that he
had not received it. He desired his brother to send him out the rest
of his books and other possessions which he had left provisionally in
England; and he likewise sent a manuscript with orders to him to get
it published and revise the proofs. It proved to be a dissertation
on Buddhism, containing such a bitter attack upon Christianity that
Jock was strongly tempted to put it in the fire at once, and had
written to Bobus to refuse all assistance in its publication, and to
entreat him to reconsider it.
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