eating its head off, and
keeping him poor, is at last--by my supernatural diligence--converted
into an actual source of revenue. And 'Ah?' is all he says, as if it
did n't concern him. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,--thou art not so
unkind as Man's ingratitude."

"Silence," Anthony mentioned, "is the perfectest herald of joy."

"Pish, tush," said Adrian. "A fico for the phrase. I 'll bet a
shilling, all the same,"--and he scanned Anthony's countenance
apprehensively,--"that you 'll be wanting money?"

"It's considered rather low," Anthony generalised, "to offer a bet on
what you have every ground for regarding as a certainty."

"A certainty?" groaned Adrian. He tossed his plump arms heavenwards.
"There it is! He 's wanting money."

And his voice broke, in something like a sob.

"Do you know," he asked, "how many pounds sterling you 've had the
spending of during the past twelvemonth? Do you know how many times
your poor long-suffering bankers have written to me, with tears in
their eyes, to complain that your account was overdrawn, and would I be
such a dear as to set it right? No? You don't? I could have sworn
you did n't. Well, I do--to my consternation. And it is my duty to
caution you that the estate won't stand it--to call that an estate," he
divagated, with a kind of despairing sniff, "which is already, by the
extravagances of your ancestors, shrunken to scarcely more than three
acres and a cow. You 're wanting money? What do you _do_ with your
money? What secret profligacy must a man be guilty of, who squanders
such stacks of money? Burst me, if I might n't as well be steward to a
bottomless pit. However, Providence be praised,--and my own
supernatural diligence,--I 'm in command of quite unhoped-for
resources. Craford New Manor is let."

"So you remarked before," said Anthony, all but yawning.

"And shall again, if the impulse seizes me," Adrian tartly rejoined.
"The circumstance is a relevant and a lucky one for the man you 're
fondest of, since he's wanting money. If it were n't that the new
house is let, he 'd find my pockets in the condition of Lord Tumtoddy's
noddle. However, the saints are merciful, I 'm a highly efficient
agent, and the biggest, ugliest, costliest house in all this
countryside is let."

"Have it so, dear Goldilocks," said Anthony, with submission. "I 'll
ne'er deny it more."

"There would be no indiscretion," Adrian threw out, "in your asking
whom it's le