"I understand you at last, Vance; shake hands: I know why you are
saving."

"Habit now," answered Vance, repressing praise of himself, as usual.
"But I remember so well when twopence was a sum to be respected that
to this day I would rather put it by than spend it. All our ideas--like
orange-plants--spread out in proportion to the size of the box which
imprisons the roots. Then I had a sister." Vance paused a moment, as
if in pain, but went on with seeming carelessness, leaning over the
window-sill, and turning his face from his friend. "I had a sister older
than myself, handsome, gentle."

"I was so proud of her! Foolish girl! my love was not enough for her.
Foolish girl! she could not wait to see what I might live to do for her.
She married--oh! so genteelly!--a young man, very well born, who had
wooed her before my father died. He had the villany to remain constant
when she had not a farthing, and he was dependent on distant relations,
and his own domains in Parnassus. The wretch was a poet! So they
married. They spent their honeymoon genteelly, I dare say. His relations
cut him. Parnassus paid no rents. He went abroad. Such heart-rending
letters from her. They were destitute. How I worked! how I raged! But
how could I maintain her and her husband too, mere child that I was? No
matter. They are dead now, both; all dead for whose sake I first ground
colours and saved halfpence. And Frank Vance is a stingy, selfish
bachelor. Never revive this dull subject again, or I shall borrow a
crown from you and cut you dead. Waiter, ho!--the bill. I'll just go
round to the stables, and see the horse put to."

As the friends re-entered London, Vance said, "Set me down anywhere in
Piccadilly; I will walk home. You, I suppose, of course, are staying
with your mother in Gloucester Place?"

"No," said Lionel, rather embarrassed; "Colonel Morley, who acts for me
as if he were my guardian, took a lodging for me in Chesterfield Street,
Mayfair. My hours, I fear, would ill suit my dear mother. Only in
town two days; and, thanks to Morley, my table is already covered with
invitations."

"Yet you gave me one day, generous friend!"

"You the second day, my mother the first. But there are three balls
before me to-night. Come home with me, and smoke your cigar while I
dress."

"No; but I will at least light my cigar in your hall, prodigal!"

Lionel now stopped at his lodging. The groom, who served him also as
valet, was in waitin