ng that you are
somebody's residuary legatee."

"I assure you, solemnly, my Lord, I am actually hard up, pressed for
money, downright inconvenienced." And he laughed again, as though it
were uncommonly droll.

"Stuff--nonsense!" said my Lord, angrily, for he really was losing
temper; and to change the topic he curtly asked, "And where do you mean
to pass the winter?"

"In Florence, my Lord, or Naples. We have a little den in both places."

The "den" in Florence was a sumptuous palace on the Arno. Its brother at
Naples was a royal villa near Posilippo.

"Why not Rome? Lady Lackington and myself mean to try Rome."

"Ah, all very well for you, my Lord, but for people of small fortune--"

There was that in the expression of his Lordship's face that told
Twining this vein might be followed too far, and so he stopped in time,
and laughed away pleasantly.

"Spicer tells me," resumed Lord Lackington, "that Florence is quite
deserted; nothing but a kind of second and third rate set of people go
there. Is that so?"

"Excellent people, capital society, great fun!" said Twining, in a burst
of merriment.

"Spicer calls them 'Snobs,' and he ought to know."

"So he ought indeed, my Lord--no one better. Admirably observed, and
very just."

"He's in training again for that race that never comes off," said his
Lordship. "The first time I ever saw him--it was at Leamington--and he
was performing the same farce, with hot baths and blankets, and jotting
down imaginary bets in a small note-book."

"How good--capital! Your Lordship has him perfectly--you know him
thoroughly--great fun! Spicer, excellent creature!"

"How those fellows live is a great mystery to me. You chance upon them
everywhere, in Baden or Aix in summer, in Paris or Vienna during the
winter. Now, if they were amusing rogues, like that fellow I met at your
house in Hampshire--"

"Oh, Stockley, my Lord; rare fellow, quite a genius!" laughed Twining.

"Just so--Stockley; one would have them just to help over the boredom of
a country house; but this creature Spicer is as devoid of amusing gifts,
as tiresome, and as worn out, as if he owned ten thousand a year."

"How good, by Jove!" cried Twining, in ecstasy. And he slapped his gaunt
limbs and threw his long arms wildly about in a transport of delight.

"And who are here, Twining--any of our set?" "Not a soul, my Lord; the
place isn't known yet, that's the reason I came here--so quiet and so
cheap, make y