we be friends?"

"With all my heart. But though you may help me, how can I help you?"

"You have helped me already to Frank Hazeldean and the Casino estate.
All clever men can help me. Come, then, we are friends; and what I say
is secret. You ask me why I think there will be a general election so
soon? I will answer you frankly. Of all the public men I ever met with,
there is no one who has so clear a vision of things immediately before
him as Audley Egerton."

"He has that character. Not far-seeing, but clear-sighted to a certain
limit."

"Exactly so. No one better, therefore, knows public opinion and its
immediate ebb and flow."

"Granted."

"Egerton, then, counts on a general election within three months, and I
have lent him the money for it."

"Lent him the money! Egerton borrow money of you, the rich Audley
Egerton!"

"Rich!" repeated Levy, in a tone impossible to describe, and
accompanying the word with that movement of the middle finger and thumb,
commonly called a "snap," which indicates profound contempt.

He said no more. Randal sat stupefied. At length the latter muttered,
"But if Egerton is really not rich; if he lose office, and without the
hope of return to it--"

"If so, he is ruined!" said Levy, coldly; "and therefore, from regard to
you, and feeling interest in your future fate, I say, Rest no hopes of
fortune or career upon Audley Egerton. Keep your place for the present,
but be prepared at the next election to stand upon popular principles.
Avenel shall return you to parliament; and the rest is with luck and
energy. And now, I'll not detain you longer," said Levy, rising and
ringing the bell. The servant entered. "Is my carriage here?"

"Yes, Baron."

"Can I set you down anywhere?"

"No, thank you, I prefer walking."

"Adieu, then. And mind you remember the soiree dansante at Mrs.
Avenel's." Randal mechanically shook the hand extended to him, and went
down the stairs.

The fresh frosty air roused his intellectual faculties, which Levy's
ominous words had almost paralyzed.

And the first thing the clever schemer said to himself was this,

"But what can be the man's motive in what he said to me?"

The next was,--

"Egerton ruined! What am I, then?" And the third was,

"And that fair remnant of the old Leslie property! L20,000 down--how to
get the sum? Why should Levy have spoken to me of this?"

And lastly, the soliloquy rounded back--"The man's motives! His
motives!"

Mea