iency of wealth to happiness as I could. Here comes our team,
and I must say a sorrier set of screws never tugged in a rope harness.
Get in first I like to show all respect to the man who pays. I say, my
good fellow," cried he to the postilion, "drive your very best, for mi
Lordo here is immensely rich, and would just as soon give you five gold
Marengos as five francs."

"What was it you said to him?" asked Barnard, as they started at a
gallop.

"I said he must not spare his cattle, for we were running away from our
creditors."

"How could you--"

"How could I? What nonsense, man! besides, I wanted the fellow to take
an interest in us, and, you see, so he has. Old Johnson was right; there
are few pleasures more exhilarating than being whirled along a good road
at the top speed of post-horses."

"I suppose you saw that girl you are in love with?" said Barnard after a
pause.

"Yes; two of them. Each of the syrens has got a lien upon my heart, and
I really can't say which of them holds the preference shares.'"

"Is there money?"

"Not what a great Croesus like yourself would call money, but still
enough for a grand 'operation' at Hom-burg, or a sheep-farming exploit
in Queensland."

"You're more 'up' to the first than the last"

"All wrong! Games of chance are to fellows like you, who must accept
Fortune as they find her. Men of _my_ stamp mould destiny."

"Well, I don't know. So long as I have known you, you've never been out
of one scrape without being half way into another."

"And yet there are fellows who pay dearer for their successes than ever
I have done for my failures."

"How so? What do they do?"

"They marry! Ay, Bob, they marry rich wives, but without any power to
touch the money, just as a child gets a sovereign at Christmas under the
condition he is never to change it."

"I must say you are a pleasant fellow to travel with."

"So I am generally reputed, and you're a lucky dog to catch me 'in the
vein,' for I don't know when I was in better spirits than this morning."

CHAPTER X. A DAYBREAK BESIDE THE RHINE.

THE day was just breaking over that wide flat beside the Rhine at Basle,
as two men, descending from a carriage on the high road, took one of the
narrow paths which lead through the fields, walking slowly, and talking
to each other in the careless tone of easy converse.

"We are early, Barnard, I should say; fully half an hour before our
time," said Calvert, as he walked on