xpected."

"I had the Kilgoffs, however," rejoined Roland.

"The Kilgoffs! you amaze me. How did my Lord ever consent to trust his
most precious self on such an enterprise?"

Cashel shrugged his shoulders, without uttering a word in reply.

"But come, do condescend to be a little more communicative. How, and
when, and where did the mishap occur?"

"She foundered on the southern coast some time after midnight on the
15th. The crew and passengers escaped by the boats, and the craft went
to pieces."

"And the Kilgoffs, how did they behave in the moment of peril?"

"My Lord seemed insensible to all around; Lady Kilgoff with a dignified
courage quite admirable."

"Indeed!" said Linton, slowly, while he fixed his eyes on Cashel's face,
where an expression of increased animation now displayed itself.

"She has a fine generous nature," continued Cashel, not heeding the
remark. "It is one of the saddest things to think of, how she has been
mated."

"She is a peeress," said Linton, curtly.

"And what of that? Do your aristocratic distinctions close the heart
against every high and noble sentiment, or can they compensate for the
absence of every tie that attaches one to life? Is not some poor Indian
girl who follows her wild ranchero husband through the dark valleys of
Guiana, not only a happier, but a better wife than your proud peeress?"

Linton shook his head and smiled, but did not reply.

"I see how my old prejudices shock you," said Cashel. "I only grieve to
think how many of them have left me; for I am sick--sick at heart--of
your gay and polished world. I am weary of its double-dealing, and
tired of its gilded falsehood. Since I have been a rich man, I have seen
nothing but the servile flattery of sycophancy, or the insidious snares
of deeper iniquity. There is no equality for one like myself. The
high-born wealthy would treat me as a _parvenu_, the vulgar rich only
reflect back my own errors in broader deformity. I have known no other
use of wealth than to squander it to please others; I have played high,
and lost deeply; I have purchased a hundred things simply because some
others wished to sell them; I have entertained and sat among my company,
waiting to catch and resent the covert insult that men pass upon such as
me; and will you tell me--you, who know the world well--that such a life
repays one?"

"Now, let me write the credit side of the account," said Linton,
laughing, and affecting a manner of ea