into silent graves. If Hamlet and
Polonius were living now, Polonius would have a much better chance of
being a Cabinet Minister, though Hamlet would unquestionably be a much
more intellectual character. What would become of Hamlet? Heaven knows!
Dr. Arnold said, from his experience of a school, that the difference
between one man and another was not mere ability,--it was energy. There
is a great deal of truth in that saying.

Submitting these hints to the judgment and penetration of the sagacious,
I enter on the fresh division of this work, and see already Randal
Leslie gnawing his lips on the background. The German poet observes that
the Cow of Isis is to some the divine symbol of knowledge, to others but
the milch cow, only regarded for the pounds of butter she will yield. O
tendency of our age, to look on Isis as the milch cow! O prostitution
of the grandest desires to the basest uses! Gaze on the goddess, Randal
Leslie, and get ready thy churn and thy scales. Let us see what the
butter will fetch in the market.

CHAPTER II.

A new Reign has commenced. There has been a general election; the
unpopularity of the Administration has been apparent at the hustings.
Audley Egerton, hitherto returned by vast majorities, has barely escaped
defeat--thanks to a majority of five. The expenses of his election are
said to have been prodigious. "But who can stand against such wealth
as Egerton's,--no doubt backed, too, by the Treasury purse?" said
the defeated candidate. It is towards the close of October; London is
already full; parliament will meet in less than a fortnight.

In one of the principal apartments of that hotel in which foreigners
may discover what is meant by English comfort, and the price which
foreigners must pay for it, there sat two persons side by side, engaged
in close conversation. The one was a female, in whose pale clear
complexion and raven hair, in whose eyes, vivid with a power of
expression rarely bestowed on the beauties of the North, we recognize
Beatrice, Marchesa di Negra. Undeniably handsome as was the Italian
lady, her companion, though a man, and far advanced into middle age, was
yet more remarkable for personal advantages. There was a strong family
likeness between the two; but there was also a striking contrast in air,
manner, and all that stamps on the physiognomy the idiosyncrasies of
character. There was something of gravity, of earnestness and passion,
in Beatrice's countenance wh