t try to draw
it back by some other: and in England there are many. One man marries a
rich heiress: another quacks: another opens a tabernacle, and wheedles
himself into old women's wills. But perhaps the best way of all is to
go into trade, break, take the benefit of the Insolvent Act, and in
short get famously _ruined_; in which case you're made for life."

"So then you do really take me to be an adventurer--a fortune-hunter?"

"Oh, Sir, God forbid I should take a man for any thing that it is not
agreeable to him to be taken for; or should call him by any name which
he thinks uncivil. But the last name, I think, is civil enough: for I
suppose every man is a fortune-hunter in this world. Some there are now
that hunt their fortunes through quiet paths where there is little risk
and much profit: others again" (and here he lost his tranquil tone, and
his self-possession) "others hunt a little profit through much danger,
choosing rather to be in eternal strife and to put their hopes daily to
hazard than to creep and crawl and sneak and grovel: and at last
perhaps they venture into a chase where there is no profit at all--or
where the best upshot will be that some dozen of hollow, smiling,
fawning scoundrels, who sin according to act of parliament, and
therefore are within the protection of parliament, may be----"

He paused suddenly, and made a fierce gesture which supplied the
ellipsis to his companion: but the latter had little wish to pursue
such a theme, and he diverted the conversation into another channel,
resuming a topic which had been once broken off:

"I have come to Wales," said Bertram, "chiefly from the interest I take
in its traditions, antiquities, and literature. The ruined monuments of
so ancient a people, that maintained its independence so long and so
heroically against enemies so potent, have a powerful interest to my
mind when connected with their grand historical remembrances. The great
architectural relics of older times,--the castles of Aberconway,
Caernarvon, Harlech, and Kilgarran"----

"Aye, and Walladmor"--said the other laughing:

"Yes, Walladmor, and many others, possess a commanding interest to him
who has familiarised himself with their history. All places too
connected with the memory and half fabulous history of king Arthur--the
grand forms of Welch scenery ennobled and glorified by the fine old
romancers, Norman or English, or by the native bard songs,----

"I know them all," said