t, but the
more subtle and ingenious points as to what party a young man entering
life ought to join, what set he should attach himself to, and what line
he should take to insure future distinction and office. He was well up
in the gossip of the House, and knew who was disgusted with such an one,
and why So-and-so "would n't stand it" any longer.

To Temple Bramleigh he was charming. Of the "line," as they love to call
it, he knew positively everything. Nor was it merely how this or that
legation was conducted, how this man got on with his chief, or why
that other had asked to be transferred; but he knew all the mysterious
goings-on of that wonderful old repository they call "the Office."
"That's what you must look to, Bramleigh," he would say, clapping him
on the shoulder. "The men who make plenipos and envoys are not in the
Cabinet, nor do they dine at Osborne; they are fellows in seedy black,
with brown umbrellas, who cross the Green Park every morning about
eleven o'clock, and come back over the self-same track by six of an
evening. Staid old dogs, with crape on their hats, and hard lines round
their mouths, fond of fresh caviare from Russia, and much given to
cursing the messengers."

He was, in a word, the incarnation of a very well-bred selfishness, that
had learned how much it redounds to a man's personal comfort that he
is popular, and that even a weak swimmer who goes with the tide makes
a better figure than the strongest and bravest who attempts to stem
the current. He was, in his way, a keen observer; and a certain haughty
tone, a kind of self-assertion, in Marion's manner, so distinguished her
from her sister, that he set Cutbill to ascertain if it had any other
foundation than mere temperament; and the wily agent was not long in
learning that a legacy of twenty thousand pounds in her own absolute
right from her mother's side accounted for these pretensions.

"I tell you, Cutty, it 's only an old diplomatist like myself would have
detected the share that bank debentures had in that girl's demeanor.
Confess, sir, it was a clever hit."

"It was certainly neat, my Lord."

"It was more, Cutty; it was deep,--downright deep. I saw where the
idiosyncrasy stopped, and where the dividends came in."

Cutbill smiled an approving smile, and his Lordship turned to the glass
over the chimney-piece and looked admiringly at himself.

"Was it twenty thousand you said?" asked he, indolently.

"Yes, my Lord, twenty.