The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Willie Gillies.
intimacy to the street. The perfect separation of the
particles for twenty-three hours of the day increased their
harmony when they met.
I was quite content with this convenient Hmitation of
friendship towards all my fellow-diners but one. The
exception was a lad about fifteen, the junior of the company,
and by far the most reserved. He was close as an oyster ;
it required the knife to open him. I believe in physiognomy
and admire beauty— not altogether the beauty of shape and
colour, for these, while they are not despicable gifts, do not
constitute the beautiful man or woman. It is the indes-
cribable irradiation of heart and mind that gives to physical
beauty a ten-fold power of attraction, and that even overcomes
the homeliness or ugliness of less favoured mortals.
My dinner companion was a fine lad to look at, but that
was not what made the young clerks so forbearing to him
(I got myself a good share of their jokes and banter), the
steady, hard-headed, and not soft-hearted tradesmen so
kind, and the Phyllis of the house so anxious to study his
comfort. I believe we all intuitively understood, that this
boy was one who had already looked without the coloured
medium of fancy on the stern realities and responsibilities
of life, and had made up his mind to sacrifice pleasure,
inclination, and ambition itself to duty. His noiseless
demeanour and serious blue eye showed the manliness of a
right determination to reach a given goal, and the strength
of self-consciousness of ability. He diligently perused a
book which he always brought with him in the interval
after dinner. Sometimes he looked up, when the conversa-
tion around him was serious and animating, and then his
eye glanced with intelligence, or a pleasant but sad smile
fluttered, as if half ashamed of itself, for a moment
on his face. I made several attempts to draw him
out, but he answered in polite monosyllables, and
immediately relapsed into the study of that weary book,
I was angry with the young fellow, and made a vow I
would force him from his defences. So one day, coming