his sort of thing, and never crossed
the Alps in my life."

"I 'll give you a lift, then, for I have a spare place. My servant
has gone round with my heavy baggage by Trieste, and I have a seat to
spare."

"This is most kind of you, but I scarcely dare put you to such
inconvenience."

"Don't talk of that. We are all in the same boat. It 's my luck to have
this offer to-day; it will be yours tomorrow. What 's your destination?"

"First Turin, then Naples; but I believe I shall have no delay at Turin,
and the Naples bags are the most urgent ones."

"Is there anything going on down there, then?" asked M'Caskey,
carelessly.

"I suspect there must be, for three of our fellows have been sent
there,--I am the fourth within a fortnight."

"A country that never interested me. Take a cigar. Are you ready, or do
you want to eat something?"

"No, I am quite ready, and only anxious not to be late for this first
train. The fact is, it's all a new sort of life to me, and as I am a
wretchedly bad Frenchman, I don't get on too well."

"The great secret is, be peremptory, never listen to excuses, tolerate
no explanations. That's my plan. I pay liberally, but I insist on having
what I want."

They were now seated, and dashing along at all the speed and with all
the noise of four wiry posters, and M'Caskey went on to describe how,
with that system of united despotism and munificence, he had travelled
over the whole globe with success. As for the anecdotes he told,
they embraced every land and sea; and there was scarcely an event of
momentous importance of the last quarter of a century of which he had
not some curious private details. He was the first man to discover
the plans of Russia on the Pruth. It was he found out Louis Philippe's
intrigue about the Spanish marriages. "If you feel interest in this sort
of thing," said he, carelessly, "just tell the fellows at home to show
you the blue-book with Chamberlayne's correspondence. It is private
and confidential; but, as a friend of mine, you can see it" And what
generosity of character he had! he had let Seymour carry off all the
credit of that detection of Russia. "To be sure," added he, "one can't
forget old times, and Seymour was my fag at Eton." It was he, too,
counselled Lord Elgin to send off the troops from China to Calcutta to
assist in repressing the mutiny. "Elgin hesitated; he could n't make up
his mind; he thought this at one moment and that the next; and he sent
f