sy jocularity. "You are young,
healthy, and high-spirited, with courage for anything, and more money
than even recklessness can get rid of; you are the most popular fellow
among men, and the greatest favorite of the other sex, going; you get
credit for everything you do, and a hundred others that men know you
could, but have not done; you have warm, attached friends,--I can
answer for one, at least, who 'll lay down his life for you." He paused,
expecting some recognition, but Cashel made no sign, and he resumed:
"You have only to propose some object to your ambition, whether it be
rank, place, or a high alliance, to feel that you are a favorite with
fortune."

"And is it by knowing beforehand that one is sure to win that gambling
fascinates?" said Roland, slowly.

"If you only knew how the dark presage of failure deters the unlucky
man, you 'd scarce ask the question!" rejoined Linton, with an accent
of sorrow, by which he hoped to awaken sympathy. The stroke failed,
however, for Cashel took no notice of it.

"There goes one whose philosophy of life is simple enough," said Linton,
as he stopped at a break in the holly hedge, beside which they were
walking, and pointed to Lord Charles, who, mounted on a blood-horse,
was leading the way for a lady, equally well carried, over some
sporting-looking fences.

"I say, Jim," cried Frobisher, "let her go a little free at them; she 's
always too hot when you hold her back."

"You don't know, perhaps, that Jim is the lady," whispered Linton, and
withdrawing for secrecy behind the cover of the hedge. "Jim," continued
Linton, "is the familiar for Jemima. She's Meek's daughter, and the
wildest romp--"

"By Jove! how well she cleared it. Here she comes back again," cried
Cashel, in all the excitement of a favorite sport.

"That 's all very pretty, Jim," called out Frobisher, "but let me
observe it's a very Brummagem style of thing, after all. I want you to
ride up to your fence with your mare in hand, touch her lightly on the
flank, and pop her over quietly."

"She is too fiery for all that," said the girl, as she held in the
mettlesome animal, and endeavored to calm her by patting her neck.

"How gracefully she sits her saddle," muttered Cashel; and the
praise might have been forgiven from even a less ardent admirer of
equestrianism, for she was a young, fresh-looking girl, with large hazel
eyes, and a profusion of bright auburn hair which floated and flaunted
in every g