is Thursday--to-morrow will be the 28th--heavy payments
are required for the Guatemala Trunk Line,--something more than forty
thousand pounds to be made up. The Parma Loan, second instalment, comes
on the 80th."

"Dinner, my Lord," said a servant, throwing open the door.

"A thousand pardons, Lady Augusta," said Dunn, offering his arm. "I am
really shocked at obtruding these annoyances upon your notice. You
see, my Lord," added he, gayly, "one of the penalties of admitting the
'working-men of life' into your society."

It was only as they passed on towards the dinner-room that Lord
Glengariff noticed Miss Kellett's absence.

"She has a headache or a cold, I believe," said Lady Augusta,
carelessly; and they sat down to dinner.

So long as the servants were present the conversation ranged over
commonplace events and topics, little indeed passing, since each seemed
too deeply impressed with grave forebodings for much inclination for
mere talking. Once alone--and Lord Glengariff took the earliest moment
to be so--they immediately resumed the subject of the ill-omened
despatch.

"You are, at all events, prepared, Dunn?" said the Earl; "this onslaught
does not take you by surprise?"

"I am ashamed to say it does, my Lord," said he, with a painful smile.
"I was never less suspectful of any malicious design upon me. I was, for
the first time perhaps in all my life, beginning to feel strong in the
consciousness that I had faithfully performed my allotted part in
the world, advanced the great interests of my country and of humanity
generally. This blow has, therefore, shocked me deeply."

"What a base ingratitude!" exclaimed Lady Augusta, indignantly.

"After all," said Dunn, generously, "let us remember that I am not
a fair judge in my own cause. Others have taken, it may be, another
reading of my character; they may deem me narrow-minded, selfish,
and ambitious. My very success--I am not going to deny it has been
great--may have provoked its share of enmity. Why, the very vastness
and extent of my projects were a sort of standing reproach to petty
speculators and small scheme-mongers."

"So that it has really come upon you unawares?" said the Earl, reverting
to his former remark.

"Completely so, my Lord. The tranquil ease and happiness I have enjoyed
under this roof--the first real holiday in a long life of toil--are the
best evidences I can offer how little I could have anticipated such a
stroke."

"Still I fe