Continent together."

"And I was to be his secretary, eh?" broke in Tony, with a bitter laugh;
"was n't that the notable project?"

"You know well, Tony, it was to be only in name."

"Of course I do; my incapacity would insure that much."

"I must say, Tony," said she, reproachfully, "that so far as I know of
Mr. Maitland's intentions towards you, they were both kind and generous.
In all that he said to me, there was the delicacy of a gentleman towards
a gentleman."

"He told you, however, that I had refused his offer?"

"Yes; he said it with much regret, and I asked his leave to employ any
influence I might possess over you to make you retract the refusal,--at
least to think again over his offer."

"And of course he refused you nothing?" said Tony, with a sneering
smile.

"Pardon me,--he did not grant my request."

"Then I think better of him than I did before."

"I suspect, Tony, that, once you understood each other, you are men to
be friends."

"You mean by that to flatter me, Alice,--and of course it is great
flattery; but whether it is that I am too conscious of my own
inferiority, or that I have, as I feel I have, such a hearty hatred of
your accomplished friend, I would detest the tie that should bind me to
him. Is he coming back here?"

"I do not know."

"You do not know!" said he, slowly, as he fixed his eyes on her.

"Take care, sir, take care; you never trod on more dangerous ground than
when you forgot what was due to _me_, I told you I did not know; it was
not necessary I should repeat it."

"There was a time when you rebuked my bad breeding less painfully,
Alice," said he, in deep sorrow; "but these are days not to come back
again. I do not know if it is not misery to remember them."

"John Anthony Butler, Esq.," cried a loud voice, and Skeffy sprang over
a box-hedge almost as tall as himself, flourishing a great sealed packet
in his band. "A despatch on Her Majesty's service just sent on here!"
cried he; "and now remember, Tony, if it's Viceroy you're named, I
insist on being Chief Sec.; if you go to India as Governor-General, I
claim Bombay or Madras. What stuff is the fellow made of? Did you ever
see such a stolid indifference? He doesn't want to know what the Fates
have decreed him."

"I don't care one farthing," said Tony, doggedly.

"Here goes, then, to see," cried Skeffy, tearing open the packet and
reading: "'Downing Street, Friday, 5th.--Mr. Butler will report himself
for s