ad as a clerk in a public office. They tell me he's a
high-spirited fellow. If he is, that is what he will do.

Yours affectionately,

LLWDDYTHLW.

When Lord Persiflage spoke of the matter to Baron d'Ossi, the Italian
Minister in London, the Baron quite acknowledged the position of the
young Duca, and seemed to think that very little could be wanting to
the making of the young man's fortune. "Ah, yes, your Excellency,"
said the Baron. "He has no great estates. Here in England you all
have great estates. It is very nice to have great estates. But he has
an uncle who is a great man in Rome. And he will have a wife whose
uncle is a very great man in London. What more should he want?" Then
the Baron bowed to the Minister of State, and the Minister of State
bowed to the Baron.

But the surprise expressed and the consternation felt at the Post
Office almost exceeded the feelings excited at the Foreign Office or
among Lady Fanny's family and friends. Dukes and Ministers, Barons
and Princes, are terms familiar to the frequenters of the Foreign
Office. Ambassadors, Secretaries, and diplomatic noblemen generally,
are necessarily common in the mouths of all the officials. But at
the Post Office such titles still carried with them something of awe.
The very fact that a man whom they had seen should be a Duke was
tremendous to the minds of Bobbin and Geraghty; and when it became
known to them that a fellow workman in their own room, one who had
in truth been no more than themselves, would henceforth be called by
so august a title, it was as though the heavens and the earth were
coming together. It affected Crocker in such a way that there was
for a time a doubt whether his senses were not temporarily leaving
him,--so that confinement would become necessary. Of course the
matter had found its way into the newspapers. It became known at the
office on the last day of February,--two days before the return of
the Rodens to London.

"Have you heard it, Mr. Jerningham?" said Crocker, rushing into the
room that morning. He was only ten minutes after the proper time,
having put himself to the expense of a cab in his impetuous desire to
be the first to convey the great news to his fellow clerks. But he
had been forestalled in his own room by the energy of Geraghty. The
condition of mind created in Mr. Jerningham's bosom by the story
told by Geraghty was of such a nature that he was unable to notice
Crocker's sin in reference