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194 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.

sins a less severe form of punishment than gout, I should be the happiest man alive."

" You are married?"

" Rather," said Cordiner ; ll happy, though married, as the bookstalls have it."

" I am a bachelor," said Sam, and the information vouchsafed on both sides was not so much out of place in the conversation of City friends as might at first appear ; it is common enough in the City of London for men to know each other intimately within the shadow of the Stock Exchange, and even at certain West End clubs, without having the smallest knowledge of each other's domestic relations.

"Then you don't want the estate in Surrey at present," said Cordiner "no good without a wife."

" I suppose not," said Sam, " unless "

" No, no, don't do that, old chap ; no fun to be got out of that."

"No?" said Sam, his thoughts running in quite a different direction from those of Cordiner.

11 None ; morality pays, my boy ; requires a bit of a struggle ; perhaps some experience ; but in regard to women it comes within the proverb about honesty being the best policy."

" I dare say," said Sam, who by this time had come to the cheese and to a consideration of which frock-coat he would wear for the Forsyth afternoon, and how long it would take him to get home and dress ; and he wondered if Dolly would be there, and what she would say to him, how she would receive him ; how Philip would treat him haughtily, of course. The conquering hero game and all that ; well, he did not care he was not going to allow himself to be shut out of a corner of Paradise because he could not range all over it.

" Are you off? " said Cordiner, who had made some other remark to Sam which had not been answered.