ns of the
family which suggest acute study of moral traits, strongly tinctured
with worldliness. Rising above the dialectics of the "Office," he had
soared into the style of the essayist. It was to be one of those
despatches which F. O. prints in blue-books, and proudly points to, to
show that her sons are as distinguished in letters as they are dexterous
in the conduct of negotiations. He had just read aloud a very
high-sounding sentence, when Mr. Temple Bramleigh entered, and in that
nicely subdued voice which private-secretaryship teaches, said, "Mr.
Cutbill is below, my Lord; will you see him?"

[Illustration: 372]

"On no account! The porter has been warned not to admit him, on pain of
dismissal See to it that I am not intruded on by this man."

"He has managed to get in somehow,--he is in my room this moment."

"Get rid of him, then, as best you can. I can only repeat that here he
shall not come."

"I think, on the whole, it might be as well to see him; a few minutes
would suffice," said Temple, timidly.

"And why, sir, may I ask, am I to be outraged by this man's vulgar
presence, even for a few minutes? A few minutes of unmitigated rudeness
is an eternity of endurance!"

"He threatens a statement in print; he has a letter ready for the
'Times,'" muttered Temple.

"This is what we have come to in England. In our stupid worship of what
we call public opinion, we have raised up the most despotic tribunal
that ever decided a human destiny. I declare solemnly, I 'd almost
as soon be an American. I vow to heaven that, with the threat of
Printing-House Square over me, I don't see how much worse I had been if
born in Kansas or Ohio!"

"It is a regular statement of the Lisconnor Mine, drawn up for the money
article, and if only a tithe of it be true--"

"Why should it be true, sir?" cried the noble Lord, in a tone that was
almost a scream. "The public does not want truth,--what they want is a
scandal--a libellous slander on men of rank, men of note like myself.
The vulgar world is never so happy as when it assumes to cancel great
public services by some contemptible private scandal. Lord Culduff
has checkmated the Russian Ambassador. I know that, but Moses has three
acceptances of his protested for nonpayment. Lord Culduflf has outwitted
the Tuileries. Why does n't he pay his bootmaker? That's their chanson,
sir--that's the burden of their low vulgar song. As if _I_, and men of
_my_ stamp, were amenable to ev