is barber--Bertram Courval."

"That's it!--that's it! Lord de Courval--singular coincidence!--descent
from the old line. Herald's College soon settle all that. Lord de
Courval!--nothing can sound better. There must be a village or hamlet
still called Courval about the property."

"I am afraid not. There is Coddle End!"

"Coddle End!--Coddle End!--the very thing, sir--the very thing--clear
corruption from Courval!--Lord de Courval of Courval! Superb! Ha! ha!"

"Ha! ha!" laughed Templeton, and he had hardly laughed before since he
was thirty.

The relations sat long and conversed familiarly. Ferrers slept at the
villa, and his sleep was sound; for he thought little of plans once
formed and half executed; it was the hunt that kept him awake, and he
slept like a hound when the prey was down. Not so Templeton, who did
not close his eyes all night.--"Yes, yes," thought he, "I must get
the fortune and the title in one line by a prudent management. Ferrers
deserves what I mean to do for him. Steady, good-natured, frank, and
will get on--yes, yes, I see it all. Meanwhile I did well to prevent
his standing for C------; might pick up gossip about Mrs. T., and other
things that might be unpleasant. Ah, I'm a shrewd fellow!"

CHAPTER III.

"_Lauzun._--There, Marquis, there, I've done it.
_Montespan._--Done it! yes! Nice doings!"
_The Duchess de la Valliere_.

LUMLEY hastened to strike while the iron was hot. The next morning he
went straight to the Treasury--saw the managing secretary, a clever,
sharp man, who, like Ferrers, carried off intrigue and manoeuvre by a
blunt, careless, bluff manner.

Ferrers announced that he was to stand for the free, respectable, open
city of C------, with an electoral population of 2,500. A very showy
place it was for a member in the old ante-reform times, and was
considered a thoroughly independent borough. The secretary congratulated
and complimented him.

"We have had losses lately in _our_ elections among the larger
constituencies," said Lumley.

"We have indeed--three towns lost in the last six months. Members do die
so very unseasonably."

"Is Lord Staunch yet provided for?" asked Lumley. Now Lord Staunch was
one of the popular show-fight great guns of the administration--not in
office, but that most useful person to all governments, an out-and-out
supporter upon the most independent principles--who was known to have
refused place and to value himself on independen