st,
that redeem whole lives of harshness"? No, my good reader, it would be
unfair and unjust to you were I to say that such sentiments as these
swayed him. Annesley Beecher's thoughts flowed in another and very
different channel. The words he whispered to his heart were somewhat
in this wise: "What a wonderful fellow must you be, Beecher, to acquire
such influence over a man like Davis; what marvellous gifts must you not
be endowed with! Is it any wonder that Grog predicts a brilliant future
to him who can curb to his will the most stubborn of natures, and elicit
traits of sacrifice out of the most selfish of men? Who but yourself
could work this miracle?" Mean and ignoble as such a mode of arguing may
seem, take my word for it, most patient reader, it is not unfrequent
in this world of ours, nor is Annesley Beecher the only one who has
ascribed all his good fortune to his own deservings.

"Shrewd fellow, that Davis! He always saw what stuff was in _me; he_
recognized the real metal, while others were only sneering at the
dross,--just as he knows this moment, that if I start fresh without
name, fortune, or title, that I 'm sure to be at the top of the tree
at last. Give me his daughter! I should think he would! It's not all up
with Lackington yet, dark as it looks; we 're in possession, and there
is a 'good line of country' between the Honorable Annesley Beecher, next
Viscount in succession, and Kit Davis, commonly called Grog of that
ilk! Not that the girl isn't equal to any station,--there's no denying
_that!_ Call her a Greville, a Stanley, or a Seymour, and she's a match
for the finest man in England! Make her a Countess to-morrow, and she
'll look it!"

It is but fair to acknowledge that Beecher was not bewildered without
some due cause; for if Davis had at one time spoken to him as one who
no longer possessed claim to rank and station, but was a mere adventurer
like himself, at another moment he had addressed him as the future
Viscount, and pictured him as hurling a proud defiance to the world in
the choice he had made of his wife. This was no blunder on Grog's part.
That acute individual had, in the course of his legal experiences,
remarked that learned counsel are wont to insert pleas which are
occasionally even contradictory, alleging at times that "there was no
debt," and then, that "if there had been, it was already paid." In the
same spirit did Davis embrace each contingency of fortune, showing that,
wheth