e down, full of
his budget, and quite ready, as usual, to apply to Dot for advice, he
was surprised, and annoyed, to find two other gentlemen in the room,
together with Blake. What a bore! to have to make one of a dinner-party
of four, and the long protracted rubber of shorts which would follow
it, when his mind was so full of other concerns! However, it was not to
be avoided.

The guests were, the fat, good-humoured, ready-witted Mat Tierney, and
a little Connaught member of Parliament, named Morris, who wore a wig,
played a very good rubber of whist, and knew a good deal about selling
hunters. He was not very bright, but he told one or two good stories of
his own adventures in the world, which he repeated oftener than was
approved of by his intimate friends; and he drank his wine plentifully
and discreetly--for, if he didn't get a game of cards after consuming a
certain quantum, he invariably went to sleep.

There was something in the manner in which the three greeted him, on
entering the room, which showed him that they had been speaking of him
and his affairs. Dot was the first to address him.

"Well, Frank, I hope I am to wish you joy. I hope you've made a good
morning's work of it?"

Frank looked rather distressed: before he could answer, however, Mat
Tierney said,

"Well, Ballindine, upon my soul I congratulate you sincerely, though,
of course, you've seen nothing at Grey Abbey but tears and cambric
handkerchiefs. I'm very glad, now, that what Kilcullen told me wasn't
true. He left Dublin for London yesterday, and I suppose he won't hear
of his cousin's death before he gets there."

"Upon my honour, Lord Ballindine," said the horse-dealing member, "you
are a lucky fellow. I believe old Wyndham was a regular golden nabob,
and I suppose, now, you'll touch the whole of his gatherings."

Dot and his guests had heard of Harry Wyndham's death, and Fanny's
accession of fortune; but they had not heard that she had rejected her
lover, and that he had been all but turned out of her guardian's house.
Nor did he mean to tell them; but he did not find himself pleasantly
situated in having to hear their congratulations and listen to
their jokes, while he himself felt that the rumour which he had so
emphatically denied to Mat Tierney, only two days since, had turned out
to be true.

Not one of the party made the slightest reference to the poor brother
from whom Fanny's new fortune had come, except as the lucky means o