d injustice have pictured him, remember, but the great
reformer, the great financier, the great philanthropist,--to make this
faction-torn land a great and united nation. To develop the resources
of the richest country in Europe was no mean ambition, and he who even
aspired to it was worthy of a better recompense than attack and insult."

"I have seen none of these," broke she in. "Indeed, so long as I
remember, I can call to mind only eulogies of your zeal, praises of your
intelligence, and the grandeur of your designs."

"There are such, however," said he, gloomily; "they are the first low
murmurings, too, of a storm that will come in full force hereafter! Let
it come," muttered he, below his breath. "If I am to fall, it shall be
like Samson, and the temple shall fall with me."

Sybella did not catch his words, but the look of his features as he
spoke them made her almost shudder with terror.

"Let us turn back," said she; "it is growing late."

Without speaking, Dunn turned his steps towards the cottage, and walked
along in deep thought.

"Mr. Hankes has come, sir," said Dunn's servant, as he reached the door.
And without even a word, Dunn hastened to his own room.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. MR. DAVENPORT DUNN IN MORE MOODS THAN ONE

Although Mr. Hankes performs no very conspicuous part in our story,
he makes his appearance at the Hermitage with a degree of pomp and
circumstance which demand mention. With our reader's kind leave,
therefore, we mean to devote a very brief chapter to that gentleman and
his visit.

As in great theatres there is a class of persons to whose peculiar skill
and ability are confided all the details of "spectacle," all those grand
effects of panoramic splendor which in a measure make the action of the
drama subordinate to the charms of what, more properly, ought to be mere
accessories; so modern speculation has called to its aid its own
special machinists and decorators,--a gifted order of men, capable of
surrounding the dryest and least promising of enterprises with all the
pictorial attractions and attractive graces of the "ballet"

If it be a question of a harbor or dock company, the prospectus is
headed with a colored print, wherein tall three-deckers mingle with
close-reefed cutters, their gay buntings fluttering in the breeze as the
light waves dance around the bows; from the sea beneath to the clouds
above, all is motion and activity,--meet emblems of the busy shore
where comme