took up a small tobacco-box of chased silver, from which
he proceeded to manufacture a cigarette--a process on which he displayed
considerable skill and patience; having lighted which, and taken a
couple of puffs, he said, "You'll have to go to Bogota, Temple, that's
clear."

"Go to Bogota! I declare I don't see why."

"Yes, you'll have to go; every man has to take his turn of some
objectionable post, his Gaboon and yellow fever days. I myself passed a
year at Stutgard. The Bramleighs are now events of the past. There's
no use in fighting against these things. They were, and they are not:
that's the whole story. It's very hard on every one, especially
hard upon _me_. Reverses in life sit easily enough on the class that
furnishes adventurers, but in _my_ condition there are no adventurers.
You and others like you descend to the ranks, and nobody thinks the
worse of you. _We_--we cannot! that's the pull you have. We are born
with our epaulettes, and we must wear them till we die."

"It does not seem a very logical consequence, notwithstanding, to me,
that because my brother may have to defend his title to his estate, that
I must accept a post that is highly distasteful to me."

"And yet it is the direct consequence. Will you do me the favor to
touch that bell. I should like some claret-cup. The fact is, we all of
us take too little out of our prosperity! Where we err is, we experiment
on good fortune: now we should n't do that, we should realize. You,
for instance, ought to have made your 'running' while your father
was entertaining all the world in Belgravia The people could n't have
ignored _you_, and dined with _him_; at least, you need not have let
them."

"So that your Lordship already looks upon us as bygones, as things of
the past?"

"I am forced to take this very disagreeable view. Will you try that cup?
it is scarcely iced enough for my liking. Have you remarked that they
never make cup properly in an hotel? The clubs alone have the secret."

"I suppose you will confer with Cutbill before you return an answer to
Augustus?" said Temple, stiffly.

"I may--that is, I may listen to what that very plausible but not very
polished individual has to say, before I frame the exact terms of my
reply. We are all of us, so to say, 'dans des mauvais draps.' _You_ are
going where you hate to go, and I, who really should have had no share
in this general disaster, have taken my ticket in the lottery when the
last priz