n and the boat-jetty! If
I was very rich, I 'd just add three rooms to our cottage, and put up
one for myself, with my own traps; and another for you, with all the
books that ever were written; and another for Skeff, or any other good
fellow we 'd like to have with us. Would n't that be jolly, little
mother? I won't deny I 'e seen what would be called prettier places
here,--the Thames above and below Richmond, for instance. Lawns smooth
as velvet, great trees of centuries' growth, and fine houses of rich
people, are on every side. But I like our own wild crags and breezy
hillsides better; I like the great green sea, rolling smoothly on, and
smashing over our rugged rocks, better than all those smooth eddied
currents, with their smart racing-boats skimming about. If I could only
catch these fellows outside the Skerries some day, with a wind from
the northwest: wouldn't I spoil the colors of their gay jackets? 'ere's
Skeff come again. He says he is going to dine with some very pleasant
fellows at the Star and Garter, and that I must positively come. He
won't be denied, and I am in such rare spirits about my appointment that
I feel as if I should be a churl to myself to refuse, though I have my
sore misgiving about accepting what I well know I never can make any
return for. How I 'd like one word from you to decide for me!

"I must shut up. I 'm off to Richmond, and they are all making such a
row and hurrying me so, that my head is turning. One has to hold
the candle, and another stands ready with the sealing-wax, by way
of expediting me. Good-bye, dearest mother--I start to-morrow for
home.--Your affectionate son,

"Tony Butler."

CHAPTER XIV. DINNER AT RICHMOND

With the company that composed the dinner-party we have only a very
passing concern. They were--including Skeffington and Tony--eight in
all. Three were young officials from Downing Street; two were guardsmen;
and one an inferior member of the royal household,--a certain Mr. Arthur
Mayfair, a young fellow much about town, and known by every one.

The dinner was ostensibly to celebrate the promotion of one of the
guardsmen,--Mr. Lyner; in reality, it was one of those small orgies
of eating and drinking which our modern civilization has imported from
Paris.

A well-spread and even splendid table was no novelty to Tony; but such
extravagance and luxury as this he had never witnessed before; it was,
in fact, a banquet in which all that was rarest and most