o measure the abilities of such men as Mr. Atlee.'

'You find him pleasant, witty, and agreeable, I hope?' said he, with a
touch of sarcasm.

'Yes, I think so.'

'With an admirable memory and great readiness for an _apropos_?'

'Perhaps he has.'

'As a retailer of an incident they tell me he has no rival.'

'I cannot say.'

'Of course not. I take it the fellow has tact enough not to tell stories
here.'

'What is all that you are saying there?' cried his lordship, to whom these
few sentences were an 'aside.'

'Cecil is praising Mr. Atlee, my lord,' said Maude bluntly.

'I did not know I had been, my lord,' said he. 'He belongs to that class of
men who interest me very little.'

'What class may that be?'

'The adventurers, my lord. The fellows who make the campaign of life on the
faith that they shall find their rations in some other man's knapsack.'

'Ha! indeed. Is that our friend's line?'

'Most undoubtedly, my lord. I am ashamed to say that it was entirely my own
fault if you are saddled with the fellow at all.'

'I do not see the infliction--'

'I mean, my lord, that, in a measure, I put him on you without very well
knowing what it was that I did.'

'Have you heard--do you know anything of the man that should inspire
caution or distrust?'

'Well, these are strong words,' muttered he hesitatingly.

But Lady Maude broke in with a passionate tone, 'Don't you see, my lord,
that he does not know anything to this person's disadvantage; that it
is only my cousin's diplomatic reserve--that commendable caution of his
order--suggests his careful conduct? Cecil knows no more of Atlee than we
do.'

'Perhaps not so much,' said Walpole, with an impertinent simper.

'_I_ know,' said his lordship, 'that he is a monstrous clever fellow. He
can find you the passage you want or the authority you are seeking for at a
moment; and when he writes, he can be rapid and concise too.'

'He has many rare gifts, my lord,' said Walpole, with the sly air of one
who had said a covert impertinence. 'I am very curious to know what you
mean to do with him.'

'Mean to do with him? Why, what should I mean to do with him?'

'The very point I wish to learn. A protege, my lord, is a parasitic plant,
and you cannot deprive it of its double instincts--to cling and to climb.'

'How witty my cousin has become since his sojourn in Ireland,' said Maude.

Walpole flushed deeply, and for a moment he seemed about to reply angrily;
b