ood tree' was nothing less than a love affair."

"Oh, hang your morality, Mr. Joseph; it's rather good fun to see the
'insolent beauty' of the season capitulating."

"Wrong again," said Linton, affecting a laugh. "Everton is in a scrape,
and his wife wants me to get him out of the way--"

"Nonsense, man, I saw the carriage; there is no need of mystifying here.
Besides, it's no affair of mine--I'm sure I wish it were! But come, what
are the odds on Hitchley's colt--are seven to two taken?"

"Don't bet," said Linton, knowingly; "there is something 'wrong' in that
stable, and I have n't found out the secret."

"What a deep fellow you are, Tom."

"Nothing of the kind, Charley. If I were, you 'd never have discovered
it. Your only deep fellow is he that the world deems shallow--your
light-hearted, rattling knave, whose imputed thoughtlessness covers
every breach of faith, and makes his veriest schemes seem purely
accident. But, once get the repute of being a clever or a smart fellow,
and success is tenfold more difficult. The world, then, only plays with
you as one does with a sharper, betting small stakes, and keeping a
steady eye on the cards. Your own sleepy eye, Charley, your languid,
careless look, are a better provision than most men give their younger
children."

Lord Charles lifted his long eyelashes lazily, and, for a second,
something like a sparkle lit up his cold, dark eye, but it was gone in a
moment, and his habitually lethargic expression once more returned. "You
heard that we were nearly 'out,' I suppose?" said he, after a pause.

"Yes. This is the second time that I bought Downie Meek's
carriage-horses on the rumor of a change of administration."

"And sold them back again at double the price, when he found that the
ministry were safe!"

"To be sure; was n't it a 'good hedge' for him to be Secretary for
Ireland at the cost of a hundred or so?"

"You 'll get the name of spreading the false intelligence, Tom, if you
always profit so much by it."

"With all my heart. I wish sincerely some good-natured fellow would lay
to my charge a little roguery that I had no share in. I have experienced
all manner and shades of sensations, but injured innocence, that would
really be new to me."

"Well," sighed Lord Charles, with a yawn, "I suppose we have only a
short time before us here. The end of the session will scarcely see us
in office."

"About that: by keeping all hands at the pumps we may float the