iffuse blessings all around
you,--fie, foolish boy! you will own your error when I tell you why I
come from my rooms at Gray's Inn to see the walls in which Hampden, a
plain country squire like you, shook with plain words the tyranny of
eight hundred years."

"Ardworth, I will not wait your time to tell me what took you yonder.
I have penetrated a secret that you, not kindly, kept from me. This
morning you rose and found yourself famous; this evening you have
come to gaze upon the scene of the career to which that fame will more
rapidly conduct you--"

"And upon the tomb which the proudest ambition I can form on earth must
content itself to win! A poor conclusion, if all ended here!"

"I am right, however," said Percival, with boyish pleasure. "It is you
whose praises have just filled my ears. You, dear, dear Ardworth! How
rejoiced I am!"

Ardworth pressed heartily the hand extended to him: "I should have
trusted you with my secret to-morrow, Percival; as it is, keep it for
the present. A craving of my nature has been satisfied, a grief has
found distraction. As for the rest, any child that throws a stone into
the water with all his force can make a splash; but he would be a fool
indeed if he supposed that the splash was a sign that he had turned a
stream."

Here Ardworth ceased abruptly; and Percival, engrossed by a bright idea,
which had suddenly occurred to him, exclaimed,--

"Ardworth, your desire, your ambition, is to enter parliament; there
must be a dissolution shortly,--the success of your book will render you
acceptable to many a popular constituency. All you can want is a sum for
the necessary expenses. Borrow that sum from me; repay me when you are
in the Cabinet, or attorney-general. It shall be so!"

A look so bright that even by that dull lamplight the glow of the cheek,
the brilliancy of the eye were visible, flashed over Ardworth's face. He
felt at that moment what ambitious man must feel when the object he has
seen dimly and afar is placed within his grasp; but his reason was proof
even against that strong temptation.

He passed his arm round the boy's slender waist, and drew him to his
heart with grateful affection as he replied,--"And what, if now
in parliament, giving up my career,--with no regular means of
subsistence,--what could I be but a venal adventurer? Place would
become so vitally necessary to me that I should feed but a dangerous
war between my conscience and my wants. In chasing