ving devoted followers among the
able, the ambitious, and the vain. It must also be confessed that Lord
Vargrave neglected no baser and less justifiable means to cement his
power by placing it on the sure rock of self-interest. No jobbing was
too gross for him. He was shamefully corrupt in the disposition of his
patronage; and no rebuffs, no taunts from his official brethren, could
restrain him from urging the claims of any of his creatures upon the
public purse. His followers regarded this charitable selfishness as
the stanchness and zeal of friendship; and the ambition of hundreds was
wound up in the ambition of the unprincipled minister.

But besides the notoriety of his public corruption, Lord Vargrave was
secretly suspected by some of personal dishonesty,--suspected of selling
his State information to stock-jobbers, of having pecuniary interests in
some of the claims he urged with so obstinate a pertinacity. And though
there was not the smallest evidence of such utter abandonment of honour,
though it was probably but a calumnious whisper, yet the mere suspicion
of such practices served to sharpen the aversion of his enemies, and
justify the disgust of his rivals.

In this position now stood Lord Vargrave: supported by interested, but
able and powerful partisans; hated in the country, feared by some of
those with whom he served, despised by others, looked up to by the rest.
It was a situation that less daunted than delighted him; for it seemed
to render necessary and excuse the habits of scheming and manoeuvre
which were so genial to his crafty and plotting temper. Like an ancient
Greek, his spirit loved intrigue for intrigue's sake. Had it led to no
end, it would still have been sweet to him as a means. He rejoiced to
surround himself with the most complicated webs and meshes; to sit in
the centre of a million plots. He cared not how rash and wild some of
them were. He relied on his own ingenuity, promptitude, and habitual
good fortune to make every spring he handled conducive to the purpose of
the machine--SELF.

His last visit to Lady Vargrave, and his conversation with Evelyn, had
left on his mind much dissatisfaction and fear. In the earlier years of
his intercourse with Evelyn, his good humour, gallantry, and presents
had not failed to attach the child to the agreeable and liberal visitor
she had been taught to regard as a relation. It was only as she grew up
to womanhood, and learned to comprehend the natur