ate, so trivial, that the
Minister, accustomed as he was to the claims of younger sons and widowed
dowagers--accustomed to the hungry cravings of petitioners without
merit, who considered birth the only just title to the right of
exactions from the public--was literally startled by the contrast. "More
than this," added Aram, "I do not require, and would decline to accept.
We have some right to claim existence from the administrators of the
common stock--none to claim affluence."

"Would to Heaven!" said the Earl, smiling, "that all claimants were like
you: pension lists would not then call for indignation; and ministers
would not blush to support the justice of the favours they conferred.
But are you still firm in rejecting a more public career, with all its
deserved emoluments and just honours? The offer I made you once, I renew
with increased avidity now."

"'Despiciam dites,'" answered Aram, "and, thanks to you, I may add,
'despiciamque famem.'"

CHAPTER VI.

THE THAMES AT NIGHT.--A THOUGHT.--THE STUDENT RE-SEEKS THE
RUFFIAN.--A HUMAN FEELING EVEN IN THE WORST SOIL.

Clem. 'Tis our last interview!
Stat. Pray Heav'n it be.
--Clemanthes.

On leaving Lord ------'s, Aram proceeded, with a lighter and more rapid
step, towards a less courtly quarter of the metropolis.

He had found, on arriving in London, that in order to secure the annual
sum promised to Houseman, it had been necessary to strip himself even of
the small stipend he had hoped to retain. And hence his visit, and
hence his petition to Lord--. He now bent his way to the spot in which
Houseman had appointed their meeting. To the fastidious reader these
details of pecuniary matters, so trivial in themselves, may be a little
wearisome, and may seem a little undignified; but we are writing a
romance of real life, and the reader must take what is homely with what
may be more epic--the pettiness and the wants of the daily world, with
its loftier sorrows and its grander crimes. Besides, who knows how
darkly just may be that moral which shows us a nature originally high,
a soul once all a-thirst for truth, bowed (by what events?) to the
manoeuvres and the lies of the worldly hypocrite?

The night had now closed in, and its darkness was only relieved by the
wan lamps that vista'd the streets, and a few dim stars that struggled
through the reeking haze that curtained the great city. Aram had now
gaine