or a
mere nothing."

"So you might, O'Reilly," said the Viscount; "it is one of those
deserted spots that are picked up for a tenth of their value; buy
it, fit it up handsomely, and we'll come and spend the autumn with
you,--won't we, Twining?"

"Upon my life we will, I 'll swear it; be here 1st September to the day,
and stay till--as long as you please. Great fun!"

"Delicious spot to come and repose in from the cares and worries of
life," said Lord Lackington, as he stretched upon a bench and began
peeling an orange.

"I 'd get the blue devils in a week; I 'd be found hanging some fine
morning--"

"For shame, papa," broke in Molly. "My Lord says he 'd come on a visit
to us, and you know we 'd only be here in the autumn."

"Just so--come here for the wine season--get in your olives and look
after your oil--great fun," chimed in Twining, merrily.

"I declare, I 'd like it of all things, would not you?" said the elder
girl to Spicer, who had now begun to reflect that there was a kind of
straw-yard season for men as well as for hunters,--when the great object
was to live cheap and husband your resources; and as he ruminated over
the lazy quietness of an existence that would cost nothing, when even
his "Bell's Life" should be inserted amongst the family extraordinaires,
he vouchsafed to approve the scheme; and in his mumbling tone, in
imitation of Heaven knows what celebrated sporting character, he
grumbled out, "Make the governor go in for it by all means!"

Twining had entered into the project most eagerly. One of the most
marked traits of his singular mind was not merely to enjoy his own
pre-eminence in wealth over so many others, but to chuckle over all the
possible mistakes which _he_ had escaped and _they_ had fallen into. To
know that there was a speculation whose temptation he had resisted and
which had engulfed all who engaged in it; to see the bank fail whose
directorship he had refused, or the railroad smashed whose preference
shares he had rejected,--this was an intense delight to him; and on such
occasions was it that he slapped his lean legs most enthusiastically,
and exclaimed, "What fun!" with the true zest of enjoyment.

To plant a man of O'Reilly's stamp in such a soil seemed, therefore,
about the best practical joke he had ever heard of; and so he walked
him over the villa, discoursing eloquently on all the advantages of the
project,--the great social position it would confer, the place he wou