ng latent and unsuspected talents for piracy,
brigandage, and conspiracy, which were no less a glory than a surprise
to him. Indeed, at times he was very like a young schoolboy let loose
after many hours' school.

Tinker was of perpetual interest to him, and he listened with greedy
ears to the wisdom of the world of that sage, on the rare occasions
when some matter or other set it flowing from his lips. On the other
hand, he found in him an absorbed listener to the stories of his less
involved financial battles, and spared no pains to make them clear to
him. Sir Tancred interested him little less, and he was always
deploring the loss the splendid army of millionaires had suffered by
his excellent abilities not having been forced to flow in a business
channel.

He was distressed, too, about the waste of Tinker, and adjured his
father to hand him over to him to be made a millionaire of.

But Sir Tancred turned a deaf ear to his petition, and said, "Of
course, if Tinker went into business he would become a millionaire.
And it's a fashionable occupation, and I've nothing to say against it.
But over here, with some of us, there are still other things besides
money--not that there will be long--and for my part I shall be content
if he grows up a gentleman, as he will. Business might spoil that; and
at any rate I won't chance it. And, after all, my step-mother won't
live to much more than eighty, so that he will have thirty thousand a
year before he's forty-five."

"That's a hundred and fifty thousand dollars," said Septimus Rainer
thoughtfully, and he pressed the point no more.

He was far too shrewd not to perceive the attraction Sir Tancred and
Dorothy had for one another, and he regarded it with entire content.
Whatever he might have said against Sir Tancred's manner of life, he
had a genuine respect for his qualities; and he had learned from
Dorothy something of the causes of his falling into that manner of
life. He had a strong belief that once married to her he would change;
he thought it likely that he might even embark on the career of
politics, which he understood to be, in England, a quite respectable
pursuit. He was aware, of course, that he could easily buy her an
English peer or a foreign Prince for husband. But Sir Tancred's rank
and birth satisfied his simple tastes; and he was quite sure that he
might ransack the English peerage and the Courts of Europe without
finding her as good a husband. He