ing-room.

'Well, now, my good Melange,' said Mr. Clairmont, beckoning him to come
near, and whispering coaxingly, 'you will see all our valuables safe
before you leave them.'

'Sans doute, monsieur, n'ayez pas peur, I have sent Foster on to the
house for a cart, and shall have everything conveyed to that apartment
you are accustomed to occupy. Of course we shall be there?'

'Are we to have our old lodgings, nephew?' said Mr. Clairmont.

'If you please, sir,' replied the baronet; 'your bedroom is as usual in
the west angle, on the ground floor, close to the bath, which is the
situation you have always preferred.'

'Ha, thank you, that is comfortable. You hear, Melange?'

'Oui, monsieur.'

'And now, nephew, if your carriers be ready say the word, and let us be
moving, for I begin to feel terribly stiff and awkward in the sinews,
and shall be right glad to find myself in a steaming bath. Don't
forget,' added he to his servant, 'the gout-stool and the moxa, and all
necessary for a good shampooing, and remember to have the sago ready for
me on coming out of the bath. Now make haste, for here comes the cart.
Be alive, Foster, as you were when you clambered up the oak like a
squirrel.'

'My valet shall attend you till Melange has made his arrangements,' said
Sir William. 'No doubt your apartments are in perfect order by this
time; so come, chairmen, take up the sofa, and go gently.'

The men began their march, and the baronet walked on at a brisk pace to
apprise Lady Clairmont that the whole family had a respite of
eight-and-forty hours.

Mr. Stanhope and his pupils lingered behind, walking on very slowly till
the men were out of hearing with their burden, and William then
exclaimed:

'Go, you genuine sybarite! Uncle of mine, I would not accept the gift of
all your estates if your gourmandizing be entailed on them.'

'Neither would I,' said his brother. 'It is impossible for a man to be a
more devoted slave to his appetite than our great-uncle Geff. The slave
of the ring in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments had a holiday life of
it in comparison. Perhaps it is wrong to say it, but really I feel quite
disgusted with him. As father truly says, "All his conversation has
reference to the sustenation of his insatiable maw," and we shall all be
glad when this animal infliction is over.'

'Gourmandizing,' said Mr. Stanhope, 'is indeed a vice which fearfully
degrades a man from the rank he was born to hold as a ratio