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376 gain. Our votes are divided, our influence frittered awaj'; Montfort House is shut up, and Carr, grown quite thin, says that, in the coming * crlsis ' a Cabinet will not only be formed, but will also last—last time enough for irreparable mischief— without a single Vipont in office."

Thus Colonel Morley continued in mournful strain, Barrel! silent by his side, till the Colonel reached his own door. There, while applying his latch-key to the lock, Alban's mind returned from the perils that threatened the House of Vipont and the Star of Brunswick to the petty claims of private friendship. But even these last were now blended with those grander inter- ests, due care for which every true patriot of the House of Vi- pont imbibed with his mother's milk.

"Your appearance in town, my dear Darrell, is most oppor- tune. It will be an object with the whole family to make the most of you at this coming ' crisis '—I say coming, for I believe it must come. Your name is still freshly remembered—your posi- tion greater for having been out of all the scrapes of the party the last sixteen or seventeen years; your house should be the nucleus of new combinations. Don't forget to send Mills to me; I will engage your i-Z'^and your house-steward to-morrow. I know just the men to suit you. Your intention to marry, too, just at this moment, is most seasonable; it will increase the family interest. I may give out that you intend to marry?"

"Oh, certainly—cry it at Charing Cross."

"A club-room will do as well. I beg ten thousand pardons; but people will talk about money whenever they talk about mar- riage. I should not like to exaggerate your fortune—I know it must be very large, and all at your own disposal—eh?"

"Every shilling."

"You must have saved a great deal since you retired into private life "i"

"Take that for granted. Dick Fairthorn receives my rents, and looks to my various investments; and I take him as my in- disputable authority when I say that, what with the rental of lands I purchased in my poor boy's lifetime, and the interest on my much more lucrative moneyed capital, you may safely whis- per to all ladies likely to feel interest in that dilfusion of knowl- edge: ' Thirty-five thousand a-year, and an old fool.'"

"I certainly shall not say an old fool, for I am the same age as yourself; and if I had ^35,000 a-year I would marry too."

"You would! Old fool!" said Darrell, turning away.