CHAPTER XLIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1628, 9 December 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XLIV.

" I see you have had a letter from Yaramboona," daidthe Count to me,, one morning, about a week after Walter's departure. "Yes," I replied, " and, though I don't suppose he has much to tell us, I deferred open-ing-it until your daughter should have left the room. No," I went on, running my eye over the short letter — "he has no news to give us on the subject of his errand. Addison is very ill— with delirium tremens, I suspect — though Walter does not directly say so." [ "It is not unlikely ; he is a hard drinker, is he not?" , , " Desperately hard; nothing but a wonderful constitution could have resisted so long the effects of the quantity of spirits he habitually uses. " His drinking powers appear to be of the ancient Scandinavian order. And, by-the-way, Count, I never could understand how those old Vikings were able to preserve such a magnificent physique under such tremendous excesses." " The .explanation is simple enough," returned the Count. " The excesses you speak of, combined with other influences incidental to the period, killed off the men of inferior stamina, leaving only those of great original constitutional power to make their mark upon the world's history. It was the same all through the stormy middle ages," he went on. " People often wonder — what, with the belligerent spirit of the times, the universal use of deadly weapons, and the rudimentary state of the arts of medicine, and surgeryhow weakly or puny men were able to exist in those days. But, the fact is, that they didn't exist at all I — at least, as far as the history of their age is concerned. They died, or were killed off— leaving their stronger brethren to astonish us moderns with the story of their determination and endurance. But, to return to Walter's affair ; I expect soon to hear from Ormonde, and he, if willing, can tell us all that Addison could." " Yes, if he's willing, as you say ; but of that I have my doubts," I answered, taking up a morning newspaper, only to put it down again with an exclamation of surprise. " What is the matter ?" asked the Count. " I saw nothing particular in the paper." (To be continued)