ntimacy with Roden, and of possibly saying a
word--just uttering a hint--as to that future event.

It was long before he could find himself near enough to Lord
Hampstead to address him. He had even refused to return home with his
father, who did not like being very late on the road, saying that he
had got a lift into town in another conveyance. This he did, with the
prospect of having to walk six miles into Penrith in his dress boots,
solely with the object of saying a few words to Roden's friend. At
last he was successful.

"We have had what I call an extremely pleasant evening, my lord." It
was thus he commenced; and Hampstead, whose practice it was to be
specially graceful to any one whom he chanced to meet but did not
think to be a gentleman, replied very courteously that the evening
had been pleasant.

"Quite a thing to remember," continued Crocker.

"Perhaps one remembers the unpleasant things the longest," said
Hampstead, laughing.

"Oh, no, my lord, not that. I always forget the unpleasant. That's
what I call philosophy." Then he broke away into the subject that was
near his heart. "I wish our friend Roden had been here, my lord."

"Is he a friend of yours?"

"Oh dear, yes;--most intimate. We sit in the same room at the Post
Office. And at the same desk,--as thick as thieves, as the saying is.
We often have a crack about your lordship."

"I have a great esteem for George Roden. He and I are really friends.
I know no one for whom I have a higher regard." This he said with an
earnest voice, thinking himself bound to express his friendship more
loudly than he would have done had the friend been in his own rank of
life.

"That's just what I feel. Roden is a man that will rise."

"I hope so."

"He'll be sure to get something good before long. They'll make him a
Surveyor, or Chief Clerk, or something of that kind. I'll back him to
have L500 a year before any man in the office. There'll be a shindy
about it, of course. There always is a shindy when a fellow is put up
out of his turn. But he needn't care for that. They can laugh as win.
Eh, my lord!"

"He would be the last to wish an injustice to be done for his own
good."

"We've got to take that as it comes, my lord. I won't say but what
I should like to go up at once to a senior class over other men's
heads. There isn't a chance of that, because I'm independent, and the
seniors don't like me. Old Jerningham is always down upon me just for
that reas