will be
absent.'

'Will she let you? Will she listen to you?'

'Not at first--at least, not willingly, or very easily; but I will show
her, by numerous little illustrations and even fables, where these small
people not only spoil their fortunes in life, but spoil life itself; and
what an irreparable blunder it is to link companionship with one of them. I
will sometimes make her laugh, and I may have to make her cry--it will not
be easy, but I shall do it--I shall certainly make her thoughtful; and if
you can do this day by day, so that a woman will recur to the same theme
pretty much in the same spirit, you must be a sorry steersman, Master Dick,
but you will know how to guide these thoughts and trace the channel they
shall follow.'

'And supposing, which I do not believe, that you could get her to break
with Walpole, what could _you_ offer her?'

'Myself!'

'Inestimable boon, doubtless; but what of fortune--position or place in
life?'

'The first Napoleon used to say that the "power of the unknown number was
incommensurable"; and so I don't despair of showing her that a man like
myself may be anything.'

Dick shook his head doubtingly, and the other went on: 'In this round game
we call life it is all "brag." The fellow with the worst card in the pack,
if he'll only risk his head on it, keep a bold face to the world and his
own counsel, will be sure to win. Bear in mind, Dick, that for some time
back I have been keeping the company of these great swells who sit highest
in the Synagogue, and dictate to us small Publicans. I have listened
to their hesitating counsels and their uncertain resolves; I have seen
the blotted despatches and equivocal messages given, to be disavowed if
needful; I have assisted at those dress rehearsals where speech was to
follow speech, and what seemed an incautious avowal by one was to be
"improved" into a bold declaration by another "in another place"; in fact,
my good friend, I have been near enough to measure the mighty intelligences
that direct us, and if I were not a believer in Darwin, I should be very
much shocked for what humanity was coming to. It is no exaggeration that
I say, if you were to be in the Home Office, and I at the Foreign Office,
without our names being divulged, there is not a man or woman in England
would be the wiser or the worse; though if either of us were to take charge
of the engine of the Holyhead line, there would be a smash or an explosion
before we rea