parture, if Gordon had
not seized his hand and detained him.

"My dear cousin, if I may so call you," he said, with the frank manner
which was usual to him, and which suited well the bold expression of his
face and the clear ring of his voice, "I am one of those who, from an
over-dislike to sentimentality and cant, often make those not intimately
acquainted with them think worse of their principles than they deserve.
It may be quite true that a man who goes with his party dislikes the
measures he feels bound to support, and says so openly when among
friends and relations, yet that man is not therefore devoid of loyalty
and honour; and I trust, when you know me better, you will not think it
likely I should derogate from that class of gentlemen to which we both
belong."

"Pardon me if I seemed rude," answered Kenelm; "ascribe it to my
ignorance of the necessities of public life. It struck me that where a
politician thought a thing evil, he ought not to support it as good. But
I dare say I am mistaken."

"Entirely mistaken," said Mivers, "and for this reason: in politics
formerly there was a direct choice between good and evil. That rarely
exists now. Men of high education, having to choose whether to accept or
reject a measure forced upon their option by constituent bodies of very
low education, are called upon to weigh evil against evil,--the evil of
accepting or the evil of rejecting; and if they resolve on the first, it
is as the lesser evil of the two."

"Your definition is perfect," said Gordon, "and I am contented to rest
on it my excuse for what my cousin deems insincerity."

"I suppose that is real life," said Kenelm, with his mournful smile.

"Of course it is," said Mivers.

"Every day I live," sighed Kenelm, "still more confirms my conviction
that real life is a phantasmal sham. How absurd it is in philosophers to
deny the existence of apparitions! what apparitions we, living men, must
seem to the ghosts!

"'The spirits of the wise
Sit in the clouds and mock us.'"

CHAPTER VI.

CHILLINGLY GORDON did not fail to confirm his acquaintance with Kenelm.
He very often looked in upon him of a morning, sometimes joined him
in his afternoon rides, introduced him to men of his own set who were
mostly busy members of Parliament, rising barristers, or political
journalists, but not without a proportion of brilliant idlers,--club
men, sporting men, men of fashion, rank, and fortune. He did so with