, my lord, I do not desire anything for myself.'

'Well, be it so. Take this to the Chancellor or the
Commander-in-Chief'--and he scribbled a few hasty lines as he talked--'and
say what you can in support of it. If they give you something good, I shall
be heartily glad of it, and I wish you years to enjoy it.'

Atlee only smiled at the warmth of interest for him which was linked with
such a shortness of memory; but was too much wounded in his pride to reply.
And now, as he saw that his lordship had replaced his glasses and resumed
his work, he walked noiselessly to the door and withdrew.

CHAPTER LXXII

THE SAUNTER IN TOWN

As Atlee sauntered along towards Downing Street, whence he purposed to
despatch his telegram to Greece, he thought a good deal of his late
interview with Lord Danesbury. There was much in it that pleased him. He
had so far succeeded in _re_ Kostalergi, that the case was not scouted out
of court; the matter, at least, was to be entertained, and even that was
something. The fascination of a scheme to be developed, an intrigue to be
worked out, had for his peculiar nature a charm little short of ecstasy.
The demand upon his resources for craft and skill, concealment and
duplicity, was only second in his estimation to the delight he felt at
measuring his intellect with some other, and seeing whether, in the game of
subtlety, he had his master.

Next to this, but not without a long interval, was the pleasure he felt at
the terms in which Lord Danesbury spoke of him. No orator accustomed to
hold an assembly enthralled by his eloquence--no actor habituated to sway
the passions of a crowded theatre--is more susceptible to the promptings of
personal vanity than your 'practised talker.' The man who devotes himself
to be a 'success' in conversation glories more in his triumphs, and sets a
greater value on his gifts, than any other I know of.

That men of mark and station desired to meet him--that men whose position
secured to them the advantage of associating with the pleasantest people
and the freshest minds--men who commanded, so to say, the best talking in
society--wished to confer with and to hear _him_, was an intense flattery,
and he actually longed for the occasion of display. He had learned a good
deal since he had left Ireland. He had less of that fluency which Irishmen
cultivate, seldom ventured on an epigram, never on an anecdote, was
guardedly circumspect as to statements of fact, and,