ceived instructions from
Sir Francis Deighton, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for
the Colonies, to acknowledge your letter of the 9th instant; and while
expressing his regret that he has not at this moment any post in his
department which he could offer for your acceptance, to state that Her
Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs will consent to appoint you
consul at Cattaro, full details of which post, duties, salary, &c, will
be communicated to you in the official despatch from the Foreign Office.

Sir Francis Deighton is most happy to have been the means through which
the son of an old friend has been introduced into the service of the
Crown.

I have the honor to be, sir,

Your obedient Servant,

Grey Egerton D'Eyncourt, Private Secretary.

"What will he say now, Gusty?" said she, triumphantly.

"He will probably say, 'What 's it worth?' Nelly. 'How much is the
income?'"

"I suppose he will. I take it he will measure a friend's good feeling
towards us by the scale of an official salary, as if two or three
hundred a year more or less could affect the gratitude we must feel
towards a real patron."

A slight twinge of pain seemed to move Bramleigh's mouth; but he grew
calm in a moment, and merely said, "We must wait till we hear more."

"But your mind is at ease, Gusty? Tell me that your anxieties are all
allayed?" cried she, eagerly.

"Yes; in so far that I have got something,--that I have not met a cold
refusal."

"Oh, don't take it that way," broke she in, looking at him with a
half-reproachful expression. "Do not, I beseech you, let Mr. Cutbill's
spirit influence you. Be hopeful and trustful, as you always were."

"I 'll try," said he, passing his arm round her, and smiling
affectionately at her.

"I hope he has gone, Gusty. I do hope we shall not see him again. He is
so terribly hard in his judgments, so merciless in the way he sentences
people who' merely think differently from himself. After hearing him
talk for an hour or so, I always go away with the thought that if the
world be only half as bad as he says it is, it's little worth living
in."

"Well, he will go to-morrow, or Thursday at farthest; and I won't
pretend I shall regret him. He is occasionally too candid."

"His candor is simply rudeness; frankness is very well for a friend, but
he was never in the position to use this freedom. Only think of what he
said to me yesterday: he said that as it was not unlikely I should ha