ch?"

"No;--to him no more than half-a-crown to you. I had to ask him for a
hundred and fifty."

"He refused it!"

"No;--he didn't do that. Had it been ten times as much, if I owed
the money, he would pay it. But he blew me up, and talked about
gambling,--and--and--"

"I should have taken that as a matter of course."

"But I'm not a gambler. A man now and then may fall into a thing of
that kind, and if he's decently well off and don't do it often, he
can bear it."

"I thought your quarrel had been altogether about Parliament."

"Oh no! He has been always the same about that. He told me that I
was going head foremost to the dogs, and I couldn't stand that. I
shouldn't be surprised if he hasn't lost more at cards than I have
during the last two years." Lopez made an offer to act as go-between,
to effect a reconciliation; but Everett declined the offer. "It would
be making too much of an absurdity," he said. "When he wants to see
me, I suppose he'll send for me."

Lopez did dispatch an agent down to Mr. Sprugeon at Silverbridge,
and the agent found that Mr. Sprugeon was a very discreet man. Mr.
Sprugeon at first knew little or nothing,--seemed hardly to be aware
that there was a member of Parliament for Silverbridge, and declared
himself to be indifferent as to the parliamentary character of the
borough. But at last he melted a little, and by degrees, over a
glass of hot brandy-and-water with the agent at the Palliser Arms,
confessed to a shade of an opinion that the return of Mr. Lopez for
the borough would not be disagreeable to some person or persons who
did not live quite a hundred miles away. The instructions given by
Lopez to his agent were of the most cautious kind. The agent was
merely to feel the ground, make a few inquiries, and do nothing. His
client did not intend to stand unless he could see the way to almost
certain success with very little outlay. But the agent, perhaps
liking the job, did a little outstep his employer's orders. Mr.
Sprugeon, when the frost of his first modesty had been thawed,
introduced the agent to Mr. Sprout, the maker of cork soles, and
Mr. Sprugeon and Mr. Sprout between them had soon decided that
Mr. Ferdinand Lopez should be run for the borough as the "Castle"
candidate. "The Duke won't interfere," said Sprugeon; "and, of
course, the Duke's man of business can't do anything openly;--but
the Duke's people will know." Then Mr. Sprout told the agent that
there was already an