resource and sudden expedient; but he had not one to
rival him in luck. It is strange enough that the hard business mind, the
men of realism _par excellence_, can recognize such a thing as fortune;
but so it is, there are none so prone to believe in this quality as the
people of finance. The spirit of the gambler is, in fact, the spirit of
commercial enterprise, and the "odds" are as carefully calculated in
the counting-house as in the betting-ring. Seen as he came into the
breakfast room of a morning, with the fresh flush of exercise on his
cheek, or as he appeared in the drawing-room, before dinner, with that
air of ease and enjoyment that marked all his courtesy, one would have
said, "There is one certainly with whom the world goes well." There were
caustic, invidious people, who hinted that Bramleigh deserved but little
credit for that happy equanimity and that buoyant spirit which sustained
him. They said, "He has never had a reverse; wait till he be tried."
And the world had waited and waited, and to all seeming the eventful
hour had not come; for there he was, a little balder, perhaps, a stray
gray hair in his whiskers, and somewhat portlier in his presence, but,
on the whole, pretty much what men had known him to be for fifteen or
twenty years back.

Upon none did the well-to-do, blooming, and prosperous rich man produce
a more powerful impression than on the young curate, who, young,
vigorous, handsome as he was, could yet never sufficiently emerge from
the _res angusto domi_ to feel the ease and confidence that come of
affluence.

What a shock was it then to L'Estrange, as he entered the library, to
see the man whom he had ever beheld as the type of till that was happy
and healthful and prosperous, haggard and careworn, his hand tremulous,
and his manner abrupt and uncertain, with a certain furtive dread at
moments, followed by outbursts of passionate defiance, as though he were
addressing himself to others besides him who was then before him.

Though on terms of cordial intimacy with the curate, and always
accustomed to call him by his name, he received him as he entered the
room with a cold and formal politeness, apologized for having taken the
liberty to send after and recall him, and ceremoniously requested him to
be seated.

"We were sorry you and Miss L'Estrange could not join the picnic
to-day," said Bramleigh; "though, to be sure, it is scarcely the season
yet for such diversions."

L'Estrange f