He went
in for law at Yale, and then practised restlessly, vaguely for two years
in Baltimore, under the patronage of his father's oldest friend, a
lawyer of distinction.

"If I fail at everything else, I'll go back to the practice of law," he
said cheerfully. "Uncle Henry is mean enough to say that he has
forgotten more law than I ever knew, but he has none the better of me.
'Gad, I am confident that I've forgotten more law, myself, than I ever
knew."

Tiring of the law books and reports in the old judge's office, he
suddenly abandoned his calling and set forth to see the world. Almost
before his friends knew that he had left he was heard of in Turkestan.
In course of time he served as a war correspondent for one of the great
newspapers, acted as agent for great hemp dealers in the Philippines,
carried a rifle with the Boers in South Africa, hunted wild beasts in
Asia and in Hottentot land, took snapshots in St. Petersburg, and almost
got to the North Pole with one of the expeditions. To do and be all of
these he had to be a manly man. Not in a month's journey would you meet
a truer thoroughbred, a more agreeable chap, a more polished vagabond,
than Hollingsworth Chase, first lieutenant in Dame Fortune's army. Tall,
good looking, rawboned, cheerful, gallant, he was the true comrade of
those merry, reckless volunteers from all lands who find commissions in
Fortune's army and serve her faithfully. He had shared pot luck in odd
parts of the world with English lords, German barons and French
counts--all serving under the common flag. His heart had withstood the
importunate batterings of many a love siege; the wounds had been
pleasant ones and the recovery quick. He left no dead behind him.

He was nearly thirty when the diplomatic service began to appeal to him
as a pleasing variation from the rigorous occupations he had followed
heretofore. A British lordling put it into his head, away out in Delhi.
It took root, and he hurried home to attend to its growth. One of his
uncles was a congressman and another was in some way connected with
railroads. He first sought the influence of the latter and then the
recommendation of the former. In less than six weeks after his arrival
in Washington he was off for the city of Thorberg in the Grand Duchy of
Rapp-Thorberg, carrying with him an appointment as consul and supplied
with the proper stamps and seal of office. His uncle compassionately
informed him beforehand that his service