hat the same gifts which win success
socially, would be just as sure to triumph if employed in the wider
sphere of the great ambitions of life. He could count the men he had
passed, and easily passed, in the race of social intercourse,--men who
at a dinner-table or in a drawing-room had not a tithe of his quickness,
his versatility, his wit, or his geniality, and yet, plodding onwards
and upwards, had attained station, eminence, and fortune; while
he--he, well read, accomplished, formed by travel and polished by
cultivation--there he was! just as he had begun the world, the only
difference being those signs of time that tell as fatally on temperament
as on vigor; for the same law that makes the hair gray and the
cheek wrinkled, renders wit sarcastic and humor malevolent Maitland
believed--honestly believed--he was a better man than this one here who
held a high command in India, and that other who wrote himself Secretary
of State. He knew how little effort it had cost him, long ago, to leave
"scores of such fellows" behind at school and at the university; but he,
unhappily, forgot that in the greater battle of life he had made no
such efforts, and laid no tax on either his industry or his ability.
He tried--he did his very best--to undervalue, to his own mind, their
successes, and even asked himself aloud, "Which of them all do I envy?"
but conscience is stronger than casuistry, however crafty it be, and the
answer came not so readily as he wished.

While he thus mused, he heard his name uttered, so close to him, too,
that he started, and, on looking up, saw that Mrs. Trafford's rooms were
lighted, and one of the windows which "gave" upon a terrace was open.
Voices came from the room within, and soon two figures passed out on the
terrace, which he speedily recognized to be Alice and Mark Lyle.

"You mistake altogether, Mark," said she, eagerly. "It is no question
whatever, whether your friend Mr. Maitland goes away disgusted with
Ireland, and sick of us all. It is a much graver matter here. What if
he were to shoot this old man? I suppose a fine gentleman as he is would
deem it a very suitable punishment to any one who even passingly angered
him."

"But why should there be anything of the kind? It is to me Maitland
would come at once if there were such a matter in hand."

"I'm not so sure of that; and I am sure that Raikes overheard
provocation pass between them, and that the Commodore left this half an
hour ago, me