ws that the fog was
lifting, and discovering a cart-track, they followed it over the
hills for many a mile.

"There is Horton Borstal," cried Parker, as they entered a deep
cutting overgrown with bushes. "I know my way now, my lady; we are
seven miles from home."

When he bade Lady Edith good-bye, Mike's mind thrilled with a sense
of singular satisfaction. Here was an adventure which seemed to him
quite perfect; it had been preceded by no wearisome preliminaries,
and he was not likely ever to see her again.

Weeks and months passed, and the simple-minded country folk with whom
he had taken up his abode seemed more thoroughly devoted to him; the
anchor of their belief seemed now deeply grounded, and in the
peaceful bay of their affection his bark floated, safe from
shipwrecking current or storm. There was neither subterfuge or
duplicity in Mike; he was always singularly candid on the subject of
his sins and general worthlessness, and he was never more natural in
word and deed than at Holly Park. If its inmates had been reasonable
they would have cast him forth; but reason enters hardly at all in
the practical conduct of human life, and our loves and friendships
owe to it neither origin or modification.

It was a house of copious meals and sleep. Mike stirred these
sluggish livers, and they accepted him as a digestive; and they
amused him, and he only dreamed vaguely of leaving them until he
found his balance at the bank had fallen very low. Then he packed up
his portmanteau and left them, and when he walked down the Strand he
had forgotten them and all country pursuits, and wanted to talk of
journalism; and he would have welcomed the obscurest paragraphist.
Suddenly he saw Frank; and turning from a golden-haired actress who
was smiling upon him, he said--

"How do you do?" The men shook hands, and stood constrainedly talking
for a few minutes; then Mike suggested lunch, and they turned into
Lubini's. The proprietor, a dapper little man, more like a rich man's
valet than a waiter, whose fat fingers sparkled with rings, sat
sipping sherry and reading the racing intelligence to a lord who
offered to toss him for half-crowns.

"Now then, Lubi," cried the lord, "which is it? Come on; just this
once."

Lubi demurred. "You toss too well for me; last night you did win
seven times running--damn!"

"Come on, Lubi; here it is flat on the table."

Mike longed to pull his money out of his pocket, but he had not been
on