f visitors are not provided with an
official bellwether, but are left to browse at discretion upon the local
antiquities. It happened in this manner that, in default of another
informant, Bessie Alden, who on doubtful questions was able to suggest
a great many alternatives, found herself again applying for intellectual
assistance to Lord Lambeth. But he again assured her that he was utterly
helpless in such matters--that his education had been sadly neglected.

"And I am sorry it makes you unhappy," he added in a moment.

"You are very disappointing, Lord Lambeth," she said.

"Ah, now don't say that," he cried. "That's the worst thing you could
possibly say."

"No," she rejoined, "it is not so bad as to say that I had expected
nothing of you."

"I don't know. Give me a notion of the sort of thing you expected."

"Well," said Bessie Alden, "that you would be more what I should like to
be--what I should try to be--in your place."

"Ah, my place!" exclaimed Lord Lambeth. "You are always talking about my
place!"

The young girl looked at him; he thought she colored a little; and for a
moment she made no rejoinder.

"Does it strike you that I am always talking about your place?" she
asked.

"I am sure you do it a great honor," he said, fearing he had been
uncivil.

"I have often thought about it," she went on after a moment. "I have
often thought about your being a hereditary legislator. A hereditary
legislator ought to know a great many things."

"Not if he doesn't legislate."

"But you do legislate; it's absurd your saying you don't. You are very
much looked up to here--I am assured of that."

"I don't know that I ever noticed it."

"It is because you are used to it, then. You ought to fill the place."

"How do you mean to fill it?" asked Lord Lambeth.

"You ought to be very clever and brilliant, and to know almost
everything."

Lord Lambeth looked at her a moment. "Shall I tell you something?" he
asked. "A young man in my position, as you call it--"

"I didn't invent the term," interposed Bessie Alden. "I have seen it in
a great many books."

"Hang it! you are always at your books. A fellow in my position, then,
does very well whatever he does. That's about what I mean to say."

"Well, if your own people are content with you," said Bessie Alden,
laughing, "it is not for me to complain. But I shall always think that,
properly, you should have been a great mind--a great character."

"Ah, that's