ing, in what position, what guarantees, if any, could be
had for the due employment and destination of a sum of money, in the event
of our agreeing to pay it. Mind, it is simply as a gauge of the fellow's
veracity that this story has any value for us. Daughter or no daughter, is
not of any moment to me; but I want to test the problem--can he tell one
word of truth about anything? You are shrewd enough to see the bearing of
this narrative on all he has told you--where it sustains, where it accuses
him.'

'Shall I set out at once, my lord?'

'No. Next week will do. We'll leave him to ruminate over your telegram.
_That_ will show him we have entertained his project; and he is too
practised a hand not to know the value of an opened negotiation. Cradock
and Mellish, and one or two more, wish to talk with you about Turkey.
Graydon, too, has some questions to ask you about Suez. They dine here on
Monday. Tuesday we are to have the Hargraves and Lord Masham, and a couple
of Under-Secretaries of State; and Lady Maude will tell us about Wednesday,
for all these people, Atlee, are coming to meet _you_. The newspapers have
so persistently been keeping you before the world, every one wants to see
you.'

Atlee might have told his lordship--but he did not--by what agency it
chanced that his journeys and his jests were so thoroughly known to the
press of every capital in Europe.

CHAPTER LXXI

THE DRIVE

Sunday came, and with it the visit to South Kensington, where Aunt
Jerningham lived; and Atlee found himself seated beside Lady Maude in a
fine roomy barouche, whirling along at a pace that our great moralist
himself admits to be amongst the very pleasantest excitements humanity can
experience.

'I hope you will add your persuasions to mine, Mr. Atlee, and induce my
uncle to take these horses with him to Turkey. You know Constantinople, and
can say that real carriage-horses cannot be had there.'

'Horses of this size, shape, and action the Sultan himself has not the
equals of.'

'No one is more aware than my lord,' continued she, 'that the measure of an
ambassador's influence is, in a great degree, the style and splendour in
which he represents his country, and that his household, his equipage, his
retinue, and his dinners, should mark distinctly the station he assumes to
occupy. Some caprice of Mr. Walpole's about Arab horses--Arabs of bone and
blood he used to talk of--has taken hold of my uncle's mind, and I half