id Dunn, as he paced the
room with his hands behind his back, and his head bent forward. "You 'll
have to sell out some of those Harbor shares."

"Bantry's, sir? Glumthal's have them as securities!"

"So they have; I forgot. Well, St Columbs, or the Patent Fuel, or that
humbug discovery of Patterson's,--the Irish Asphalt There's an American
fellow, by the way, wants that."

"They're very low,--very low, all these, sir," said Hankes,
lugubriously. "They sank so obstinately that I just withdrew our name
quietly, so that we can say any day we have long ceased any connection
with these enterprises."

"She 'll scarcely make any delay in Malta, Hankes. Your message ought to
be there by Thursday at latest" And then, as if ashamed of showing where
his thoughts were straying, he said, "All kinds of things--odds and ends
of every sort--are jostling each other in my brain to-night."

"You want rest, sir; you want nine or ten hours of sound sleep."

"Do I look fatigued or harassed?" asked Dunn, with an eagerness that
almost startled the other.

"A little tired, sir; not more than that," cautiously answered Hankes.

"But I don't _feel_ tired. I am not conscious of any weariness," said
he, pettishly. "I suspect that you are not a very acute physiognomist,
Hankes. I have told you," added he, hastily, "I shall want some twelve
or fifteen thousand pounds soon. Look out, too, for any handsome
country-seat--in the South, I should prefer it--that may be in the
market I 'll not carry out my intentions about Kellett's Court. It is
a tumble-down old concern, and would cost us more in repairs than a
handsome house fit to inhabit."

"Am I to have the honor of offering my felicitations, sir?" said Hankes,
obsequiously; "are the reports of the newspapers as to a certain happy
event to be relied on?"

"You mean as to my marriage? Yes, perfectly true. I might, in a mere
worldly point of view, have looked higher,--not higher, certainly
not,--but I might have contracted what many would have called a more
advantageous connection; in fact, I might have had any amount of money I
could care for, but I determined for what I deemed the wiser course. You
are probably not aware that this is a very long attachment. Lady Augusta
and myself have been as good as engaged to each other for--for a number
of years. She was very young when we met first,--just emerging from
early girlhood; but the sentiment of her youthful choice has never
varied, and, on