er welfare."

He looked at me for a moment with a hang-dog expression on his face, but
he could not stand my gaze, so he turned on his heel and left the room
without another word.

He was not convinced of my guilt, nor would he believe me innocent.
Evidently the royal verdict was "not proven." But in any case I knew that
my favor at court was at an end.

During the next week I constantly importuned the king to tell me what
had become of my cousin, and intimated my intention to make trouble in
terms so plain--for I knew the king's favor was lost to me--that my Lord
Clarendon was instructed to offer me a sum of money to say nothing more
about the matter. I agreed to accept the money, it was paid, and I
remained silent.

Frequently the difference between an acted lie and a spoken lie is the
difference between success and failure. Then, too, the acted lie has this
advantage; there is no commandment against it. We should congratulate
ourselves that so many pleasant sins were omitted on Sinai.

At the end of a week after our great adventure I went to the country, and
within a fortnight returned to find that my place in the Wardrobe was
taken by another, and my place in the king's smile by the world at large;
at least, it was lost to me.

When a wise courtier loses his king's smile, he takes himself out of his
king's reach. Therefore I cast about in my mind for a London friend who
would like to possess my title. I thought of Sir William Wentworth,
rather of his wife, and suggested to her that for the sum of thirty
thousand pounds I would resign my estates and title to the king, if Sir
William would arrange for their transfer to himself. The transfer
directly from me to him was not within the limits of the law. It could
only be made through the king by forfeiture and grant. But the like had
happened many times before, and could be accomplished now if the king
were compensated for his trouble.

Wentworth broached the subject to our august sovereign who, in
consideration of the sum of ten thousand pounds "lent" by Sir William to
his Majesty, and because he was glad to conciliate a prominent citizen of
London, that city being very angry on account of the sale of Dunkirk,
agreed to the transfer, and the baronetcy of Clyde with the appurtenant
estates passed to the house of Wentworth, where, probably, they brought
trouble to Sir William and joyous discontent to his aspiring lady.

Aside from the fact that I knew the king's