l-bond would it be when
I called two English peers my brothers-in-law, and an earl for my wife's
father! This would at once lead me to the very step of the 'Order.' How
many noble families would it interest in my elevation! The Ardens are
the best blood of the south, connected widely with the highest in both
countries. Is it possible that this could succeed?" He thought of the
old Earl and his intense pride of birth, and his heart misgave him; but
then, Lady Augusta's gentle tones and gentler looks came to his mind,
and he remembered that though a peer's daughter, she was penniless,
and--we shame to write it--not young. The Lady Augusta Arden marries the
millionnaire Mr. Dunn, and the world understands the compact There are
many such matches every season.

"What age would you guess me to be, Hankes?" said he, suddenly turning
round.

"I should call you--let me see--a matter of forty-five or forty-six,
sir."

"Older, Hankes,--older," said he, with a smile of half-pleasure.

"You don't look it, sir, I protest you don't. Sitting up all night and
working over these accounts, one might, perhaps, call you forty-six; but
seeing you as you come down to breakfast after your natural rest, you
don't seem forty."

"This same life is too laborious; a man may follow it for the ten or
twelve years of his prime, but it becomes downright slavery after that."

"But what is an active mind like yours to do, sir?" asked Hankes.

"Take his ease and rest himself."

"Ease!--rest! All a mistake, sir. Great business men can't exist in that
lethargy called leisure."

"You are quite wrong, Hankes; if I were the master of some venerable old
demesne, like this, for instance, with its timber of centuries' growth,
and its charms of scenery, such as we see around us here, I 'd ask no
better existence than to pass my days in calm retirement, invite a stray
friend or two to come and see me, and with books and other resources
hold myself aloof from stocks and statecraft, and not so much as ask how
are the Funds or who is the Minister."

"I 'd be sorry to see you come to that, sir, I declare I should," said
Hankes, earnestly.

"You may live to see it, notwithstanding," said Dunn, with a placid
smile.

"Ah, sir," said Hankes, "it's not the man who has just conceived such
a grand idea as this "--and he touched the books before him--"ought to
talk about turning hermit."

"We'll see, Hankes,--we'll see," said Dunn, calmly. "There come the
pos