was he to know, he or the
fair Elizabeth, that the business was a love suit? That would not have
done. The old gentleman would not think the king himself too good for
his daughter; if he dreamed that she was second fiddle, he would want me
to find the door faster than he could shew me there. So, if you fall in
love with her and want to supersede me, there's your chance."

"I'm Jonathan to your David," returned the smaller man, "the kingdom is
for you, Edmonson." And the speaker looked at his companion with an
admiration that was deep in proportion as he felt himself unable to
imitate that mixture of good nature, strong will, and audacity that in
Edmonson fascinated him. "Is she handsome?" he added.

"No," said the other decidedly. "She has a smile that lights up her face
well, and occasionally she says good things, but half the time in
company she seems not to be attending to what is going on about her, she
is away off in a dream about something that nobody cares a pin for, and
of course, it gives her a peculiar manner. I could see I interested her
more than anybody else did, but I had hard work sometimes to know how to
answer her queer sayings, for I could scarcely tell what she was talking
about."

"You don't like that," suggested Bulchester. "You like ladies who lead
in society."

"Well," assented Edmonson, "I know. But she will have to set up for an
oddity, and, you see, she has money enough to be able to afford it. A
fortune in her own right, and large expectations from the old gentleman
who began with money and has never made a bad investment in his life.
Think of it! Gerald Edmonson will keep open house and live rather
differently from at present in his bachelor quarters; and all his old
friends will be welcome."

"What do you say to those we are going to meet to-night, who are to give
us our farewell supper; you would not ask a set like that to a lady's
table?"

Edmonson laughed.

"Why, and if I did," he answered, "Elizabeth Royal would never fathom
them. She might think they drank somewhat too much, and discover that
they were noisy; but as to the wild pranks we have played, yes, you and
I, Bulchester, I out of pure enjoyment of them, you, I do believe, more
than half not to be behind other men of fashion, why, you might tell
them to her safely, for she would never comprehend. One can't get along
so well with her on the little nothings one says to other women, to be
sure, but she has the greatest simpl