Ministry--purchased by a sacrificed youth and a degraded manhood--a
youth in labour, a manhood in schemes. No, Radclyffe! give me the
bright, the glad sparkle of existence; and, ere the sad years of age and
sickness, let me at least enjoy. That is wisdom! Your creed is--But I
will not imitate your rudeness!" and Godolphin laughed.

"Certainly," replied Radclyffe, "you do your best to enjoy yourself.
You live well and fare sumptuously: your house is superb, your villa
enchanting. Lady Erpingham is the handsomest woman of her time: and,
as if that were not enough, half the fine women in London admit you at
their feet. Yet you are not happy."

"Ay: but who is?" cried Godolphin, energetically.

"I am," said Radclyffe, drily.

"You!--humph!"

"You disbelieve me."

"I have no right to do so: but are you not ambitious? And is not
ambition full of anxiety, care,--mortification at defeat, disappointment
in success? Does not the very word ambition--that is, a desire to be
something you are not--prove you discontented with what you are?"

"You speak of a vulgar ambition," said Radclyffe.

"Most august sage!--and what species of ambition is yours?"

"Not that which you describe. You speak of the ambition for self; my
ambition is singular--it is the ambition for others. Some years ago I
chanced to form an object in what I considered the welfare of my race.
You smile. Nay, I boast no virtue in my dreams; but philanthropy was
my hobby, as statues may be yours. To effect this object, I see great
changes are necessary: I desire, I work for these great changes. I am
not blind, in the meanwhile, to glory. I desire, on the contrary, to
obtain it! But it would only please me if it came from certain sources.
I want to feel that I may realise what I attempt; and wish for that
glory that comes from the permanent gratitude of my species, not that
which springs from the momentary applause. Now, I am vain, very vain:
vanity was, some years ago, the strongest characteristic of my nature.
I do not pretend to conquer the weakness, but to turn it towards my
purposes. I am vain enough to wish to shine, but the light must come
from deeds I think really worthy."

"Well, well!" said Godolphin, a little interested in spite of himself:
"but ambition of one sort resembles ambition of another, inasmuch as it
involves perpetual harassment and humiliations."

"Not so," answered Radclyffe;--"because when a man is striving for what
he fancies a laud