repents
of having done wrong, and is so very, very sorry to have lost many
opportunities of securing success, that really the past is all sorrow.

"You have forgotten to counsel me about Clara. The alternative lies
between the stage and a convent. Pray say which of the two, in these
changeful times, gives the best promise of permanence; and believe me

"Your affectionate daughter,

"Louisa."

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE O'SHEA AT HIS LODGINGS.

A very brief chapter will suffice to record the doings of two of our
characters, not destined to perform very foreground parts in the present
drama. We mean Mr. O'Shea and Charles Heathcote. They had established
themselves in lodgings in a certain locality called Manchester
Buildings, much favored by some persons who haunt the avenues of "the
House," and are always in search of "our Borough Member." Neither the
aspect of their domicile, nor their style of living, bespoke flourishing
circumstances. O'Shea, indeed, had returned to town in cash, but an
unlucky night at the "Garottoman" had finished him, and he returned to
his lodgings one morning at daybreak two hundred and seventeen pounds
worse than nothing.

Heathcote had not played; nay, he had lived almost penuriously; but
in a few weeks all his resources were nigh exhausted, and no favorable
change had occurred in his fortunes. At the Horse Guards he had been
completely unsuccessful. He had served, it is true, with distinction,
but, as he had quitted the army, he could not expect to be restored to
his former rank, while, by the rules of the service, he was too old to
enter as a subaltern. And thus a trained soldier, who had won fame and
honor in two campaigns, was, at the age of twenty-six, decided to be
superannuated. It was the chance meeting of O'Shea in the street, when
this dilemma was mentioned, that led to their ultimate companionship,
for the Member at once swore to bring the case before the House, and to
make the country ring from end to end with the enormity. Poor Heathcote,
friendless and alone at the moment, caught at the promise, and a few
days afterwards saw them domesticated as chums at No.--, in the locality
already mentioned.

"You 'll have to cram me, Heathcote, with the whole case. I must be able
to make an effective speech, narrating all the great exploits you have
done, with everywhere you have been, before I come to the grievance, and
the motion for 'all the correspondence between Captain Heathcote