prevent being
himself cheated on a small one. He never looked into bills till he was
compelled to pay them; and he never calculated the amount of an expense
that seemed the least necessary to his purposes. But still Lord Vargrave
relied upon his marriage with the wealthy Evelyn to relieve him from
all his embarrassments; and if a doubt of the realization of that vision
ever occurred to him, still public life had splendid prizes. Nay, should
he fail with Miss Cameron, he even thought that, by good management, he
might ultimately make it worth while to his colleagues to purchase his
absence with the gorgeous bribe of the Governor-Generalship of India.

As oratory is an art in which practice and the dignity of station
produce marvellous improvement, so Lumley had of late made effects in
the House of Lords of which he had once been judged incapable. It is
true that no practice and no station can give men qualities in which
they are wholly deficient; but these advantages can bring out in the
best light all the qualities they _do_ possess. The glow of a generous
imagination, the grasp of a profound statesmanship, the enthusiasm of
a noble nature,--these no practice could educe from the eloquence of
Lumley Lord Vargrave, for he had them not; but bold wit, fluent and
vigorous sentences, effective arrangement of parliamentary logic,
readiness of retort, plausibility of manner, aided by a delivery
peculiar for self-possession and ease, a clear and ringing voice (to the
only fault of which, shrillness without passion, the ear of the audience
had grown accustomed), and a countenance impressive from its courageous
intelligence,--all these had raised the promising speaker into the
matured excellence of a nervous and formidable debater. But precisely as
he rose in the display of his talents, did he awaken envies and enmities
hitherto dormant. And it must be added that, with all his craft and
coldness, Lord Vargrave was often a very dangerous and mischievous
speaker for the interests of his party. His colleagues had often cause
to tremble when he rose: nay, even when the cheers of his own faction
shook the old tapestried walls. A man who has no sympathy with the
public must commit many and fatal indiscretions when the public, as well
as his audience, is to be his judge. Lord Vargrave's utter incapacity
to comprehend political morality, his contempt for all the objects of
social benevolence, frequently led him into the avowal of doctrine