y comforts. Deeming these assured, I paused ere I
risked their loss against the stake which in King James's name you set
upon the board. But it happens to-day that these are assured no longer,"
he ended, his voice breaking almost, his eyes haggard. "They are assured
no longer."

"You mean?" inquired Caryll.

"I mean that I am confronted by the danger of beggary, ruin, shame, and
the sponging-house, at best."

Mr. Caryll was stirred out of his calm. "My lord!" he cried. "How is
this possible? What can have come to pass?"

The earl was silent for a long while. It was as if he pondered how he
should answer, or whether he should answer at all. At last, in a low
voice, a faint tinge reddening his face, his eyes averted, he explained.
It shamed him so to do, yet must he satisfy that craving of weak minds
to unburden, to seek relief in confession. "Mine is the case of Craggs,
the secretary of state," he said. "And Craggs, you'll remember, shot
himself."

"My God," said Mr. Caryll, and opened wide his eyes. "Did you-?" He
paused, not knowing what euphemism to supply for the thing his lordship
must have done.

His lordship looked up, sneering almost in self-derision. "I did," he
answered. "To tell you all--I accepted twenty thousand pounds' worth of
South Sea stock when the company was first formed, for which I did not
pay other than by lending the scheme the support of my name at a time
when such support was needed. I was of the ministry, then, you will
remember."

Mr. Caryll considered him again, and wondered a moment at the
confession, till he understood by intuition that the matter and its
consequences were so deeply preying upon the man's mind that he could
not refrain from giving vent to his fears.

"And now you know," his lordship added, "why my hopes are all in King
James. Ruin stares me in the face. Ruin and shame. This forlorn Stuart
hope is the only hope remaining me. Therefore, am I eager to embrace it.
I have made all plain to you. You should understand now."

"Yet not quite all. You did this thing. But the inspection of the
company's books is past. The danger of discovery, at least, is averted.
Or is it that your conscience compels you to make restitution?"

His lordship stared and gaped. "Do you suppose me mad?" he inquired,
quite seriously. "Pho! Others were overlooked at the time. We did
not all go the way of Craggs and Aislabie and their fellow-sufferers.
Stanhope was assailed afterward, though he