undred a year or so that you would pay for Kenelm would suit him
very well. His name is Welby, and he lives in Chester Square."

"No doubt he is a contributor to 'The Londoner,'" said the Parson,
sarcastically.

"True. He writes our classical, theological, and metaphysical articles.
Suppose I invite him to come here for a day or two, and you can see him
and judge for yourself, Sir Peter?"

"Do."

CHAPTER X.

MR. WELBY arrived, and pleased everybody. A man of the happiest manners,
easy and courteous. There was no pedantry in him, yet you could soon see
that his reading covered an extensive surface, and here and there
had dived deeply. He enchanted the Parson by his comments on Saint
Chrysostom; he dazzled Sir Peter with his lore in the antiquities of
ancient Britain; he captivated Kenelm by his readiness to enter into
that most disputatious of sciences called metaphysics; while for Lady
Chillingly, and the three sisters who were invited to meet him, he was
more entertaining, but not less instructive. Equally at home in novels
and in good books, he gave to the spinsters a list of innocent works
in either; while for Lady Chillingly he sparkled with anecdotes of
fashionable life, the newest _bons mots_, the latest scandals. In fact,
Mr. Welby was one of those brilliant persons who adorn any society
amidst which they are thrown. If at heart he was a disappointed man,
the disappointment was concealed by an even serenity of spirits; he
had entertained high and justifiable hopes of a brilliant career and a
lasting reputation as a theologian and a preacher; the succession to
his estate at the age of twenty-three had changed the nature of his
ambition. The charm of his manner was such that he sprang at once into
the fashion, and became beguiled by his own genial temperament into that
lesser but pleasanter kind of ambition which contents itself with social
successes and enjoys the present hour. When his circumstances compelled
him to eke out his income by literary profits, he slid into the grooves
of periodical composition, and resigned all thoughts of the labour
required for any complete work, which might take much time and be
attended with scanty profits. He still remained very popular in society,
and perhaps his general reputation for ability made him fearful to
hazard it by any great undertaking. He was not, like Mivers, a despiser
of all men and all things; but he regarded men and things as an
indifferent though goo