n unexpected development
of consumption among the expectant heirs, tumbled into a baronetcy and
eight thousand a year, and Bottles himself into a modest but to him most
ample fortune of as many hundred. When the news reached him he was the
captain of a volunteer corps engaged in one of the numerous Basuto wars
in the Cape Colony. He served the campaign out, and then, in obedience
to his brother's entreaties and a natural craving to see his native
land, after an absence of nearly fourteen years, resigned his commission
and returned to England.

Thus it came to pass that the next scene of this little history opens,
not upon the South African veld, or in a whitewashed house in some
half-grown, hobbledehoy colonial town, but in a set of the most
comfortable chambers in the Albany, the local and appropriate habitation
of the bachelor brother aforesaid, Sir Eustace Peritt.

In a very comfortable arm-chair in front of a warm fire (for the month
is November) sits the Bottles of old days--bigger, uglier, shyer than
ever, and in addition, disfigured by an assegai wound through the cheek.
Opposite to him, and peering at him occasionally with fond curiosity
through an eyeglass, is his brother, a very different stamp of man.
Sir Eustace Peritt is a well-preserved, London-looking gentleman, of
apparently any age between thirty and fifty. His eye is so bright, his
figure so well preserved, that to judge from appearances alone you would
put him down to the former age. But when you come to know him so as to
be able to measure his consummate knowledge of the world, and to
have the opportunity of reflecting upon the good-natured but profound
cynicism which pleasantly pervades his talk as absolutely as the flavour
of lemon pervades rum punch, you would be inclined to assign his natal
day to a much earlier date. In reality he was forty, neither more nor
less, and had both preserved his youthful appearance and gained the
mellowness of his experience by a judicious use of the opportunities of
life.

"Well, my dear George," said Sir Eustace, addressing his
brother--determined to take this occasion of meeting after so long a
time to be rid of the nickname "Bottles," which he hated--"I haven't had
such a pleasure for years."

"As--as what?"

"As meeting you again, of course. When I saw you on the vessel I knew
you at once. You have not changed at all, unless expansion can be called
a change."

"Nor have you, Eustace, unless contraction c