ore able
agent."

"You could not more highly compliment the zeal I am exercising in your
service."

"Well, I take it I must leave the whole thing in your hands. I shall
not prolong my stay in town. I wanted to do something in the city, but
I find these late crashes in the banks have spread such terror and
apprehension, that nobody will advance a guinea on anything. There is an
admirable opening just now--coal."

"In Egypt?"

"No, in Ireland."

"Ah, in Ireland? That's very different. You surely cannot expect
capital will take _that_ channel?"

"You are an admirable lawyer, Sedley. I am told London has not your
equal as a special pleader, but let me tell you you are not either a
projector or a politician. I am both, and I declare to you that this
country which you deride and distrust is the California of Great
Britain. Write to me at your earliest; finish this business if you
can, out of hand, and if you make good terms for me I 'll send you
some shares in an enterprise--an Irish enterprise--which will pay you a
better dividend than some of your East county railroads."

"Have you changed the name of your place? Your son, Mr. John Bramleigh,
writes 'Bishop's Folly' at the top of his letter."

"It is called Castello, sir. I am not responsible for the silly
caprices of a sailor."

CHAPTER XVI.. SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS.

Lord Culduff and Colonel Bramleigh spoke little to each other as they
journeyed back to Ireland. Each fell back upon the theme personally
interesting to him, and cared not to impart it to his neighbor. They
were not like men who had so long travelled the same road in life that
by a dropping word a whole train of associations can be conjured up, and
familiar scenes and people be passed in review before the mind.

A few curt sentences uttered by Bramleigh told how matters stood in
the City--money was "tight" being the text of all he said; but of that
financial sensitiveness that shrinks timidly from all enterprise after
a period of crash and bankruptcy, Culduff could make nothing. In his own
craft nobody dreaded the fire because his neighbor's child was burned,
and he could not see why capitalists should not learn something from
diplomacy.

Nor was Colonel Bramleigh, on his side, much better able to follow the
subjects which had interest for his companion. The rise and fall of
kingdoms, the varying fortunes of states, impressed themselves upon the
City man by the condition of financial cre