d with sables, I observed, more than I had while
he was in the room, the enervate slightness of his frail form, and the
more than paleness of his thin, joyless face; and then, instead of envy,
I felt compassion for the owner of all this pomp and grandeur,--felt
that I would not have exchanged my hardy health and easy humor and vivid
capacities of enjoyment in things the slightest and most within the
reach of all men, for the wealth and greatness which that poor youth
perhaps deserved the more for putting them so little to the service of
pleasure.

"Well," said Sir Sedley, "and what do you think of him?"

"He is just the sort of man Trevanion would like," said I, evasively.

"That is true," answered Sir Sedley, in a serious tone of voice, and
looking at me somewhat earnestly. "Have you heard? But no, you cannot
have heard yet."

"Heard what?"

"My dear young friend," said the kindest and most delicate of all fine
gentlemen, sauntering away, that he might not observe the emotion he
caused, "Lord Castleton is going to Paris to join the Trevanions. The
object Lady Ellinor has had at heart for many a long year is won, and
our pretty Fanny will be Marchioness of Castleton when her betrothed
is of age,--that is, in six months. The two mothers have settled it all
between them."

I made no answer, but continued to look out of the window.

"This alliance," resumed Sir Sedley, "was all that was wanting to assure
Trevanion's position. When Parliament meets, he will have some great
office. Poor man, how I shall pity him! It is extraordinary to me,"
continued Sir Sedley, benevolently going on, that I might have full time
to recover myself, "how contagious that disease called 'business' is in
our foggy England! Not only Trevanion, you see, has the complaint in its
very worst and most complicated form, but that poor dear cousin of mine
who is so young [here Sir Sedley sighed], and might enjoy himself so
much, is worse than you were when Trevanion was fagging you to death.
But, to be sure, a great name and position, like Castleton's, must be a
very heavy affliction to a conscientious mind. You see how the sense
of its responsibilities has aged him already,--positively, two great
wrinkles under his eyes. Well, after all, I admire him and respect his
tutor: a soil naturally very thin, I suspect, has been most carefully
cultivated; and Castleton, with Trevanion's help, will be the first man
in the peerage,--prime minister some day,