tained him in his room.
It was as the dinner drew to its close that Mr. Cutbill was announced.

"It ain't serious, I hope? I mean, they don't think the case dangerous?"
said he, as he arranged his napkin on his knee.

Augustus only shook his head in silence.

"Why, what age is he? not sixty?"

"Fifty-one--fifty-two in June."

"That's not old; that's the prime of life, especially when a man has
taken nothing out of himself."

"He was always temperate,--most temperate."

"Just so; even his own choice Mouton did n't tempt him into the second
bottle. I remember that well. I said to myself, 'Tom Cutbill, that green
seal would n't fare so well in your keeping.' I had _such_ a bag of news
for him. All the rogueries on 'Change, fresh and fresh. I suppose it is
quite hopeless to think of telling him now?"

"Not to be thought of."

"How he 'd have liked to have heard about Hewlett and Bell! They 're
gone for close on two millions; they 'll not pay over sixpence in the
pound, and Rinker, the Bombay fellow that went in for cotton, has
caught it too! Cotton and indigo have ruined more men than famine and
pestilence. I 'd be shot, if I was a Lord of the Council, if I would n't
have a special prayer for them in the Litany. Well, Temple, and how are
you, all this while?" said he, turning abruptly to the diplomatist, who
sat evidently inattentive to the dialogue.

"What, sir, did you address _me?_" cried he, with a look of
astonishment and indignation.

"I should think I did; and I never heard you were Premier Earl, or that
other thing of England, that you need look so shocked at the liberty!
You Foreign Office swells are very grand folk to each other; but take my
word for it, the world, the real world, thinks very little of you."

Temple arose slowly from his place, threw his napkin on the table,
and turning to Augustus, said, "You 'll find me in the library," and
withdrew.

"That's dignified, I take it," said Cutbill; "but to my poor
appreciation, it's not the way to treat a guest under his father's
roof."

"A guest has duties, Mr. Cutbill, as well as rights. My brother is not
accustomed to the sort of language you address to him, nor is he at all
to blame if he decline to hear more of it."

"So that I am to gather you think he was right."

Augustus bowed coldly.

"It just comes to what I said one day to Harding; the sailor is the only
fellow in the house a man can get on with. I 'm sorry, heartily sorry
for him