itable. He said nothing of the
_justice_ of the measure he proposed to adopt, but much on the
_expediency_. He concluded by offering to Vargrave, in the most cordial
and flattering terms, the very seat in the Cabinet which Lord Saxingham
had vacated, with an apology for its inadequacy to his lordship's
merits, and a distinct and definite promise of the refusal of the
gorgeous viceroyalty of India, which would be vacant next year by the
return of the present governor-general.

Unprincipled as Vargrave was, it is not, perhaps, judging him too mildly
to say that, had he succeeded in obtaining Evelyn's hand and fortune,
he would have shrunk from the baseness he now meditated. To step coldly
into the very post of which he, and he alone, had been the cause of
depriving his earliest patron and nearest relative; to profit by the
betrayal of his own party; to damn himself eternally in the eyes of
his ancient friends; to pass down the stream of history as a mercenary
apostate,--from all this Vargrave must have shrunk, had he seen one spot
of honest ground on which to maintain his footing. But now the waters of
the abyss were closing over his head; he would have caught at a straw;
how much more consent to be picked up by the vessel of an enemy! All
objection, all scruple, vanished at once. And the "barbaric gold" "of
Ormus and of Ind" glittered before the greedy eyes of the penniless
adventurer! Not a day was now to be lost. How fortunate that a written
proposition, from which it was impossible to recede, had been made to
him before the failure of his matrimonial projects had become known!
Too happy to quit Paris, he would set off on the morrow, and conclude
in person the negotiation. Vargrave glanced towards the clock; it was
scarcely past eleven. What revolutions are worked in moments! Within an
hour he had lost a wife, a noble fortune, changed the politics of his
whole life, stepped into a Cabinet office, and was already calculating
how much a governor-general of India could lay by in five years! But it
was only eleven o'clock. He had put off Mr. Howard's visit till twelve;
he wished so much to see him, and learn all the London gossip connected
with the recent events. Poor Mr. Douce! Vargrave had already forgotten
_his_ existence!--he rang his bell hastily. It was some time before his
servant answered.

Promptitude and readiness were virtues that Lord Vargrave peremptorily
demanded in a servant; and as he paid the best price f