; "what best of all
lucky winds has driven you here? I'm not sure I wasn't dreaming of you
this very moment. I know I have had a vision of angelic innocence and
simplicity, which you must have had your part in; but do tell me when
did you arrive, and whence--"

"Not till I have dined, by Jove! I have tasted nothing since daybreak,
and then it was only a mere apology for a breakfast."

"Franchetti, get something, will you?" said Upton, languidly,--"a
cutlet, a fowl; anything that can be had at once."

"Nothing of the kind, Signor Franchetti," interposed Harcourt; "if
I have a wolfs appetite, I have a man's patience. Let me have a real
dinner,--soup, fish, an entree,--two if you like,--roast beef; and I
leave the wind-up to your own discretion, only premising that I like
game, and have a weakness for woodcocks. By the way, does this climate
suit Bordeaux, Upton?"

"They tell me so, and mine has a good reputation."

"Then claret be it, and no other wine. Don't I make myself at home, old
fellow, eh?" said he, clapping Upton on the shoulder. "Have I not taken
his Majesty's Embassy by storm, eh?"

"We surrender at discretion, only too glad to receive our vanquisher.
Well, and how do you find me looking? Be candid: how do I seem to your
eyes?"

"Pretty much as I have seen you these last fifteen years,--not an hour
older, at all events. That same delicacy of constitution is a confounded
deal better than most men's strong health, for it never wears out; but I
have always said it, Upton will see us all down!"

Sir Horace sighed, as though this were too pleasant to be true.

"Well," said he, at last, "but you have not told me what good chance has
brought you here. Is it the first post-station on the way to India?"

"No; they've taken me off the saddle, and given me a staff appointment
at Corfu. I 'm going out second in command there; and whether it was
to prevent my teasing them for something else, or that there was really
some urgency in the matter, they ordered me off at once."

"Are they reinforcing the garrison there?" asked Upton.

"No; not so far as I have heard."

"It were better policy to do so than to send out a 'commander-in-chief
and a drummer of great experience,'" muttered Upton to himself; but
Harcourt could not catch the remark. "Have you any news stirring in
England? What do the clubs talk about?" asked Sir Horace.

"Glencore's business occupied them for the last week or so; now, I
think, it is you