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Rh trived to give the misanthrope a new zest of existence; and when he found that business could be made pleasant, the rich man conceived an interest in his own house, gardens, property. For the sake of William's merry companionship he would even ride over his farms, and actually carried a gun. Meanwhile the prop- erty, I am told, was really well managed. Ah! that fellow Willy was a born genius, and could have managed every body's affairs except his own. I heard of all this with pleasure (people say I hear every thing)—when one day a sporting man seizes me by the button at Tatterstall's—'Do you know the news? Will Losely is in prison on a charge of robbing his employer! '"


 * ' Robbing! incredible!" exclaimed Lionel.

"My dear Lionel, it was after hearing that news that I es- tablished as invariable my grand maxim, Nil admirari—never to be astonished at anything!"

"But of course he was innocent?"

"On the contrary, he confessed, was committed; pleaded guilty, and was transported! People who knew Will)', said that Gunston ought to have declined to drag him before a magistrate, or, at the subsequent trial, have abstained from giving evidence against him; that Willy, had been till then a faithful steward; the whole proceeds of the estate had passed through his hands; he might, in transactions for timber, have cheated, undetected, to twice the amount of the alleged robbery; it must have been a momentary aberration of reason; the rich man should have let him off. But I side with the rich man. His last belief in his species was annihilated. He must have been inexorable. He could never be amused, never be interested again. He was in- exorable and—vindictive."

"But what were the facts?—what was the evidence?"

"Very little came out on the trial; because, in pleading guilty, the court had merely to consider the evidence which had sufficed to commit him. The trial was scarcely noticed in the London papers. William Losely was not like a man known about town. His fame was confined to those who resorted to old-fashioned country houses, chiefly single men, for the sake of sport. But stay. I felt such an interest in the case that I made an abstract or precis, not only of all that appeared, but all that I could learn of its leading circumstances. 'Tis a habit of mine, whenever any of my acquaintances embroil themselves with the Crown—" The Colonel rose, unlocked a small glazed book- case, selected from the contents a MS. volume, reseated himself, turned the pages, found the place sought, and, reading from it, resumed his narrative. " ' One evening Mr. Gunston came to