or me at last, and said, 'George, I want a bit of advice from you.'
'I know what you mean,' said I, stopping him; 'send every man of
them,--don't hold back a drummer.' I will say," he added, "he had
the honesty to own from whom he got that counsel, and he was greatly
provoked when he found I could not be included in the vote of thanks of
the House. 'Confound their etiquette,' said he; 'it is due to George,
and he ought to have it.' You don't know why I 'm in such haste to Corfu
now?"

"I have not the faintest notion."

"I will tell you: first, because a man can always trust a gentleman;
secondly, it will be matter of table-talk by the time you get back. The
Tories are in need of the Radicals, and to buy their support intend to
offer the throne of Greece, which will be vacant whenever we like, to
Richard Cobden."

"How strange! and would he accept it?"

"Some say no; _I_ say yes; and Louis Napoleon, who knows men thoroughly,
agrees with me. 'Mon cher Cham,'--he always called me Cham,--'talk as
people will, it is a very pleasant thing to sit on a throne, and it goes
far towards one's enjoyment of life to have so many people employed
all day long to make it agreeable.'" If Tony thought at times that his
friend was a little vainglorious, he ascribed it to the fact that any
man so intimate with the great people of the world, talking of them as
his ordinary every-day acquaintances, might reasonably appear such to
one as much removed from all such intercourse as he himself was. That
the man who could say, "Nesselrode, don't tell me," or "Rechberg, my
good fellow, you are in error there!" should be now sitting beside
him, sharing his sandwich with him, and giving him to drink from his
sherry-flask; was not that glory enough to turn a stronger head than
poor Tony's? Ah, my good reader, I know well that _you_ would not have
been caught by such blandishments. You have "seen men and cities."
You have been at courts, dined beside royalties, and been smiled on by
serene highnesses; but Tony has not had your training; he has had none
of these experiences; he has heard of great names just as he has heard
of great victories. The illustrious people of the earth are no more
within the reach of his estimation than are the jewels of a Mogul's
turban; but it is all the more fascinating to him to sit beside one who
"knows it all."

Little wonder, then, if time sped rapidly, and that he never knew
weariness. Let him start what theme he m