CHAPTER I.

“ Tuce. Z the wind there? “That makes for me. Jsab. Come—I forget a business.” Wit without Money.
ORD VARGRAVE'S travelling-carriage was at his door, and he self was putting on his greatcoat in his library, when Lord ©
; I had forgot. Somehow or athier my memory is so E eood as it was. But, let me see, Lisle Soe is in -shire. Why, you will pass within ten miles of C ; ee ( ! Shall 1? Iam not much versed in the EN,
England—never learned it at school. As for Poland, Kam- tka, Mexico, Madagascar, or any other place as-to which ledge. would be useful, I have every inch of the way at my
, it is the town in which my
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« Ah, so it is. I recollect you were to have stood for C——, but gave it up to Staunch; very handsome in you. Have you — any interest there still ?” e
“JT think my ward has some tenants,—a street or two,—one a called Richard Street, and the other Templeton Place. I had “a intended some weeks ago to have gone down there, and seen — 3 what interest was still left to our family; but Staunch himself — told me that Sas was a sure card.”
great alarm: he now thinks he shall be thrown out. A Mr. ‘4 _ Winsley, who has a great deal of interest there, and was a sup- 4 porter of his, hangs back on account of the * * * * question. — " This is unlucky, as Staunch is quite with ws; and if he were ) to rat now it would be most unfortunate.” “Winsley ! Winsley !—-my poor uncle’s right-hand man, A great brewer—always chairman of the Templeton Committee. _ I know the name, though I never saw the man.” “If you could take C—— in your way ?” ‘ “To be sure. Staunch must not be lost. We cannot throw — away a single vote, much more one of such weight,—eighteen stone at the least! I'll stop at C on pretence of seeing after my ward’s houses, and have a quiet conference with Mr. — Winsley. Hem! Peers must not interfere in elections—eh? — Well, good-bye: take care of yourself. I shall be back in a week, I hope,—perhaps less.” 4 In a minute more Lord Vargrave and Mr. George Frederick Augustus Howard, a slim young gentleman of high birth and connections, but who, having, as a portionless cadet, his own way = to make in the world, condescended to be his lordship’s private _ secretary, were rattling over the streets the first stage to C It was late at night when Lord Vargrave arrived at the head — inn of that grave and respectable cathedral city, in which once Richard Templeton, Esq.,—saint, banker, and politician—had — exercised his dictatorial sway. Sze transit gloria mundi! As he warmed his hands by the fire in the large wainscoted apart- ment into which he was shown, his eye met a full length engraving of his uncle, with a roll of papers in his hand,—meant _ for a parliamentary bill for the turnpike trusts in the neighbour-_ .
Ne
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hood of C——. The sight brought back his recollections of at pious and saturnine relation, and insensibly the minister's _ _ thoughts flew to his death-bed, and to the strange secret whichin _, that last hour he had revealed to Lumley,—a secret which had — ~ done much in deepening Lord Vargrave’s contempt for the forms and conventionalities of decorous life. And here it may be | mentioned—though in the course of this volume a penetrating _ _ reader may have guessed as much—that, whatever that secret, it did not refer expressly or exclusively to the late lord’s singular and ill-assorted marriage. Upon that point much was still left: obscure to arouse Lumley’s curiosity, had he been a man whose uriosity was very vivacious. But on this he felt but little interest. He knew enough to believe that no further information could benefit himself personally ; why should he trouble his head with what never would fill his pockets? _ An audible yawn from the slim secretary roused Lord _ Vargrave from his reverie.
“JT envy you, my young friend,” said he, good-humouredly, “It is a pleasure we lose as we grow older—that of being sleepy. However, ‘to bed,’ as Lady Macbeth says. Faith, I
on’t wonder the poor devil of a thane was slow in going to bed ith such a tigress. Good night to you.”