"From your resemblance to the family I conclude you are a relative, though I have never seen you before."
The young lawyers both laughed. "We have often been mistaken for brothers," Edward explained. "Our only connexion is, that we have been room-mates the last six years. My friend's name is Paul Dudley; and like myself he expects his fame as a lawyer and statesman to ring through the land."
"You are indeed very like," murmured the stranger as if speaking to himself while his eye glanced kindly at the stalwart forms before him. "And yet," he added after an earnest gaze into Paul's eye, "there is a difference."
Both the young men wore heavy whiskers, trimmed like their hair in the same fashion, which fact greatly increased the resemblance; but the gentleman's thought was:
"Wallingford has his father's calm, truthful eye, which wins the confidence at once. Dudley's gaze shrinks from meeting yours. He may, or may not, become a villain."
Edward urged his old friend to accompany him to Rose Cottage, if only for a night; insisting that he and his sister had a claim on the kindness of their father's friend, for the sake of old times, but Mr. Winslow was obliged to decline.
"My destination is the same as yours," he explained; "but I have to wait an hour for a stage coach to take me back into the country. If you can remain with me during that time I should like to converse with you concerning your future prospects."
"Of course I can," cried Edward, who had been longing for just such a disinterested friend. "I will find an opportunity for Paul to ride and carry the valises and I will walk home after I see you safely off."
On landing, Edward hailed a young countryman named Biles, who had been disappointed in the company he expected; and engaged him to take his friend to Rose Cottage, or as far as he went in that direction; after which, leaving his own trunks and boxes in the care of the baggage master till sent for, he passed an hour profitably in relating his plans for the future to his father's friend; and in receiving much useful counsel from Mr. Winslow's lips.
Gertrude's name was mentioned; and after some thought, the gentleman said, "I must go and see her. If she is as ignorant and unformed as you state, she must be placed in a good family school; but I cannot tell what is best till I hear her plead her own cause."