left a fortune. My father, for all he was a
soldier, had a mild voice and a soft heart. He gave a certain military
distinction to the peerage, but he played hell-and-tommy with the
fortune. And then I come: I can't be either a Chancellor or a General,
and I haven't a penny to bless myself with. You can't think of a more
idiotic box for a man to be in. But now--thanks to you--there comes
this prospect of an immense change. If I have money at my back--at once
everything is different with me. People will remember then promptly
enough that I am a Hadlow, as well as a Plowden. I will make the party
whips remember it, too. It won't be a Secretary's billet in India at
four hundred a year that they'll offer me, but a Governorship at six
thousand--that is, if I wish to leave England at all. And we'll see
which set of whips are to have the honour of offering me anything. But
all that is in the air. It's enough, for the moment, to realize that
things have really come my way. And about that--about the success of the
affair--I suppose there can be no question whatever?"

"Not the slightest," Thorpe assured him. "Rubber Consols can go up to
any figure we choose to name."

Lord Plowden proffered the cigar case again, and once more helped
himself after he had given his companion a light. Then he threw himself
back against the cushions, with a long sigh of content. "I'm not going
to say another word about myself," he announced, pleasantly. "I've had
more than my legitimate innings. You mustn't think that I forget for a
moment the reverse of the medal. You're doing wonderful things for me. I
only wish it were clearer to me what the wonderful things are that I can
do for you."

"Oh, that'll be all right," said the other, rather vaguely.

"Perhaps it's a little early for you to have mapped out in your mind
just what you want to do," Plowden reflected aloud. "Of course it has
come suddenly upon you--just as it has upon me. There are things in
plenty that we've dreamed of doing, while the power to do them was a
long way off. It doesn't at all follow that these are the things we
shall proceed to do, when the power is actually in our hands. But have
you any plans at all? Do you fancy going into Parliament, for example?"

"Yes," answered Thorpe, meditatively. "I think I should like to go into
Parliament. But that would be some way ahead. I guess I've got my plans
worked out a trifle more than you think. They may not be very definite,
as r