ued, apostrophising the absent Dick--"To
stay out, my boy, may not be easy; but to get out when you're once in,
is the deuce!"

CHAPTER XII.

AN ABSURD AMBITION.

_Suave mari magno_--Like so many of us who quote these words, Mr. Coxon
could not finish the line, but the tag as it stood was enough to express
his feelings. If the Cabinet were going to the bottom, he was not to
sink with it. If he had one foot in that leaky boat, the other was on
firm ground. He had received unmistakable intimations that, if he would
tread the path of penitence as Puttock had, the way should be strewn
with roses, and the fatted calf duly forthcoming at the end of the
journey. He had a right to plume himself on the dexterity which had
landed him in such a desirable position, and he was fully awake to the
price which that position made him worth. Now a man who commands a great
price, thought Mr. Coxon, is a great man. So his meditations--which, in
this commercial age, seem hardly open to adverse criticism--ran, as he
walked towards Government House, just about the same time as Mr. Kilshaw
was also thinking of betaking himself thither. A great man (Mr. Coxon's
reflections continued) can aspire to the hand of any lady--more
especially when he depends not merely on intellectual ability (which is
by no means everything), but is also a man of culture, of breeding, of a
University education, and of a very decent income. He forbore to throw
his personal attractions into the scale, but he felt that if he were in
other respects a suitable aspirant, no failure could await him on that
score. Vanity apart, he could not be blind to the fact that he was in
many ways different from most of his compatriots, still more from most
of his colleagues.

"In all essentials I am an Englishman, pure and simple," thought he, as
he entered the gates of Government House; but, the phrase failing quite
to satisfy him, he substituted, as he rang the bell, "An English
gentleman."

"Shall we go into the garden?" said Lady Eynesford, after she had bidden
him welcome. "I dare say we shall find Miss Scaife there," and, as she
spoke, she smiled most graciously.

Coxon followed her, his brow clouded for the first time that day. He was
not anxious to find Miss Scaife, and he had begun to notice that Lady
Eynesford always suggested Miss Scaife as a resource; her manner almost
implied that he must come to see Miss Scaife.

"I can't think where she has got to," excla