e him talking to you."

"Indeed? Yet he is a political ally of yours and of Mr. Money now."

"That's a different thing; and I don't know anything very bad of him,
only I had rather you didn't have too much to say to him. He's a
rowdy--that's all. If I had a sister, I shouldn't care to have him for
an acquaintance of hers."

"Is it a vice to know him?"

"Almost, for women," Heron said abruptly; and presently, having left
Minola, interposed, as if without thinking of it, between Lucy Money and
St. Paul, who was engaging her in conversation.

CHAPTER XIV.

A MIDNIGHT CONFIDENCE.

Mr. St. Paul stayed to dinner that day, being invited by Money without
ceremony, and accepting the invitation in the easiest way. Victor
Heron declined to remain. The family and Minola, with Mr. St. Paul,
made up the party. St. Paul was very attentive to Mrs. Money, who
appeared to be delighted with him. He talked all through the
dinner--he hardly ever stopped; he had an adventure in Texas, or in
Mexico, or in the South Sea Islands, _apropos_ of everything; he
seemed equally pleased whether his listeners believed or disbelieved
his stories, and he talked of his own affairs with a cool frankness,
as if he was satisfied that all the world must know everything about
him, and that he might as well speak bluntly out. He could not be
called cynical in manner, for cynicism presupposes a sort of
affectation, a defiance, or a deliberate _pose_ of some kind, and St.
Paul seemed absolutely without affectation--completely self-satisfied
and easy. Victor had spoken of him as "a rowdy--that's all." But that
was not all. He was--if such a phrase could be tolerated--a "gentleman
rowdy." His morals and his code of honor seemed to be those of a
Mexican horse-stealer, and yet anybody must have known that he was by
birth and early education an English gentleman.

"I don't think I know a soul about town," he said. "I looked in at the
club once or twice--always kept up my subscription there during my worst
of times--and I didn't see a creature I could recollect. I dare say the
people who know my brother won't care to know me. I did leave such a
deuce of a reputation behind me; and they'll all be sure to think I
haven't got a red cent--a penny, I mean. There they are mistaken.
Somehow the money-making gift grows on you out West."

"Why don't you settle down?" Money asked. "Get into Parliament, marry,
range yourself, and all that--make up with your bro