deaf or blind to passing events, had
scarcely ever thought of him before.

'My lord,' said Gashford in his ear, as he drew the curtains of his bed
betimes; 'my lord!'

'Yes--who's that? What is it?'

'The clock has struck nine,' returned the secretary, with meekly folded
hands. 'You have slept well? I hope you have slept well? If my prayers
are heard, you are refreshed indeed.'

'To say the truth, I have slept so soundly,' said Lord George, rubbing
his eyes and looking round the room, 'that I don't remember quite--what
place is this?'

'My lord!' cried Gashford, with a smile.

'Oh!' returned his superior. 'Yes. You're not a Jew then?'

'A Jew!' exclaimed the pious secretary, recoiling.

'I dreamed that we were Jews, Gashford. You and I--both of us--Jews with
long beards.'

'Heaven forbid, my lord! We might as well be Papists.'

'I suppose we might,' returned the other, very quickly. 'Eh? You really
think so, Gashford?'

'Surely I do,' the secretary cried, with looks of great surprise.

'Humph!' he muttered. 'Yes, that seems reasonable.'

'I hope my lord--' the secretary began.

'Hope!' he echoed, interrupting him. 'Why do you say, you hope? There's
no harm in thinking of such things.'

'Not in dreams,' returned the Secretary.

'In dreams! No, nor waking either.'

--'"Called, and chosen, and faithful,"' said Gashford, taking up
Lord George's watch which lay upon a chair, and seeming to read the
inscription on the seal, abstractedly.

It was the slightest action possible, not obtruded on his notice, and
apparently the result of a moment's absence of mind, not worth remark.
But as the words were uttered, Lord George, who had been going on
impetuously, stopped short, reddened, and was silent. Apparently quite
unconscious of this change in his demeanour, the wily Secretary stepped
a little apart, under pretence of pulling up the window-blind, and
returning when the other had had time to recover, said:

'The holy cause goes bravely on, my lord. I was not idle, even last
night. I dropped two of the handbills before I went to bed, and both are
gone this morning. Nobody in the house has mentioned the circumstance
of finding them, though I have been downstairs full half-an-hour. One or
two recruits will be their first fruit, I predict; and who shall say how
many more, with Heaven's blessing on your inspired exertions!'

'It was a famous device in the beginning,' replied Lord George; 'an
excellent device