," burst out Jack; "rather than owe my promotion to
that bewigged old dandy, I 'd go and keep a lighthouse."

"A most illiberal speech," said Temple. "I was about to employ a
stronger word, but still not stronger than my sense of its necessity."

"Remember, Temple," replied Jack, "I have no possible objection to his
being _your_ patron. I only protest that he shan't be _mine_. He may
make you something ordinary or extraordinary to-morrow, and I 'll never
quarrel about it."

"I am grateful for the concession," said the other, bowing.

"If it was Lord Culduff that got you this step," said Colonel Bramleigh,
"I must say nothing could be more delicate than his conduct; he never so
much as hinted to me that he had taken trouble in the matter."

"He is _such_ a gentleman!" said Marion, with a very enthusiastic
emphasis on the word.

"Well, perhaps it's a very ignoble confession," said Nelly; "but I
frankly own I 'd rather Jack owed his good fortune to his good fame than
to all the peers in the calendar."

"What pains Ellen takes," said Marion, "to show that her ideas of life
and the world are not those of the rest of us."

"She has me with her whenever she goes into the lobby," said Jack, "or I
'll pair with Temple, who is sure to be on the stronger side."

"Your censure I accept as a compliment," said Temple.

"And is this all our good news has done for us,--to set us exchanging
tart speeches and sharp repartees with each other?" said Colonel
Bramleigh. "I declare it is a very ungracious way to treat pleasant
tidings. Go out, boys, and see if you could n't find some one to dine
with us, and wet Jack's commission as they used to call it long ago."

"We can have the L'Estranges and our amiable neighbor, Captain
Craufurd," said Marion; "but I believe our resources end with these."

"Why not look up the Frenchman you smashed some weeks ago, Jack?" said
Augustus; "he ought to be about by this time, and it would only be
common decency to show him some attention."

"With all my heart. I'll do anything you like but talk French with him.
But where is he to be found?"

"He stops with Longworth," said Augustus, "which makes the matter
awkward. Can we invite one without the other, and can we open our
acquaintance with Longworth by an invitation to dinner?"

"Certainly not," chimed in Temple. "First acquaintance admits of no
breaches of etiquette. Intimacies may, and rarely, too, forgive such."

"What luck to have such