ome this difficulty gracefully. He
tried, indeed, to seem at ease, he endeavored even to be cheerful; but
the efforts were all unsuccessful. My lord was no very acute observer at
any time; he was, besides, so constitutionally indolent that the company
which exacted least was ever the most palatable to him. As for Baynton,
he was only too happy whenever least reference was made to his opinion,
and so they sat and sipped their wine with wonderfully little converse
between them.

"You have a statue, or a group, or something or other, have n't you?"
said my lord, after a very long interval.

"I have a half-finished model," said the youth, not without a certain
irritation at the indifference of his questioner.

"Scarcely light enough to look at it to-night,--eh, Baynton?"

"Scarcely!" was the dry answer.

"We can go in the morning though, eh?"

The other nodded a cool assent.

My lord now filled his glass, drank it off, and refilled, with the air
of a man nerving himself for a great undertaking,--and such was indeed
the case. He was about to deliver himself of a sentiment, and the
occasion was one to which Baynton could not lend his assistance.

"I have been thinking," said he, "that if that same estate we spoke
of, Baynton,--that Welsh property, you know, and that thing in
Ireland,--should fall in, I 'd buy some statues and have a gallery!"

"Devilish costly work you'd find it," muttered Baynton.

"Well, I suppose it is,--not more so than a racing stable, after all."

"Perhaps not."

"Besides, I look upon that property--if it does ever come to me--as a
kind of windfall; it was one of those pieces of fortune one could n't
have expected, you know." Then, turning towards the youth, as if to
apologize for a discussion in which he could take no part, he said, "We
were talking of a property which, by the eccentricity of its owner, may
one day become mine."

"And which doubtless some other had calculated on inheriting," said the
youth.

"Well, that may be very true; I never thought about that,--eh, Baynton?"

"Why should you?" was the short response.

"Gain and loss, loss and gain," muttered the youth, moodily, "are the
laws of life."

"I say, Baynton, what a jolly moonlight there is out there in the
garden! Would n't it be a capital time this to see your model, eh?"

"If you are disposed to take the trouble," said the youth, rising, and
blushing modestly; and the others stood up at the same moment.

Nothin