ore his friend--'whom, by
the way,' said he, 'I am anxious to make known to you. You are the very
man to give him first-rate advice, and if you cannot take up his case
yourself to recommend him to some one of trust and character.' While we
were talking, the stranger entered,--a young man, short, good-looking,
and of good address. 'I want, to present you to Mr. Sedley,' said
Captain B., 'and I'll be shot if I don't forget your name.'

"'I half doubt if you ever knew it,' said the other, laughing; and,
turning to me, added, 'Our friendship is of short date. We met as
travellers, but I have seen enough of life to know that the instinct
that draws men towards each other is no bad guarantee for mutual
liking.' He said this with a slightly foreign accent, but fluently and
easily.

"We now sat down to table, and though not being gifted with that
expansiveness that the stranger spoke of, I soon found myself listening
with pleasure to the conversation of a very shrewd and witty man, who
had seen a good deal of life. Perhaps I may have exhibited some trait of
the pleasure he afforded me--perhaps I may have expressed it in words;
at all events your son marked the effect produced upon me, and in a
tone of half jocular triumph, cried out, 'Eh, Sedley, you 'll stand by
him--won't you? I 've told him if there was a man in England to carry
him through a stiff campaign you were the fellow.' I replied by some
commonplace, and rose soon after to proceed to court. As the foreigner
had also some business at the Hall, I offered him a seat in my cab. As
we went along, he spoke freely of himself and his former life, and gave
me his card, with the name 'Anatole Pracontal'--one of the aliases of
our Pretender. So that here I was for two hours in close confab with the
enemy, to whom I was actually presented by your own son! So overwhelming
was this announcement that I really felt unable to take any course,
and doubted whether I ought not at once to have told him who his
fellow-traveller was. I decided at last for the more cautious line, and
asked him to come and see me at Fulham. We parted excellent friends.
Whether he will keep his appointment or not I am unable to guess. By a
special good fortune--so I certainly must deem it--Captain Bramleigh was
telegraphed for to Portsmouth, and had to leave town at once. So that
any risks from that quarter are avoided. Whether this strange meeting
will turn out well or ill, whether it will be misinterprete