ation
with the Minister on this subject?"

"None, whatever. I assure you, most solemnly, that I have no
instructions on the subject, nor have I ever had any conversation with
him on the matter."

"Then let me beg you to forget what has just passed between us. It is,
after all, mere chit-chat. That's a Susterman's, that portrait you are
looking at," said he, eager to change the topic. "It is said to be a
likeness of Bianca Capello."

"A very charming picture, indeed; purchased, I suppose, in your last
visit abroad."

"Yes; I bought it at Verona. Its companion, yonder, was a present from
the Archduke Stephen, in recognition, as he was gracious enough to call
it, of some counsels I had given the Government engineers about drainage
in Hungary. Despotic governments, as we like to term them, have this
merit, at least,--they confer acts of munificent generosity."

The Secretary muttered an assent, and looked confused.

"I reaped a perfect harvest of crosses and decorations," continued Dunn,
"during my tour. I have got cordons from countries I should be puzzled
to point out on the map, and am a noble in almost every land of Europe
but my own."

"Ours is the solitary one where the distinction is not a mere title,"
said the other, "and, consequently, there are graver considerations
about conferring it than if it were a mere act of courtesy."

"Where power is already acquired there is often good policy in
legitimatizing it," said Dunn, gravely. "They say that even the Church
of Rome knows how to affiliate a heresy.--Well, Clowes, what is it?"
asked he of the butler, who stood awaiting a favorable moment to address
him. He now drew nigh, and whispered some words in his ear.

"But you said I was engaged--that I had company with me?" said Dunn, in
reply.

"Yes, sir, but she persisted in saying that if I brought up her name you
would certainly see her, were it but for a moment This is her card."

"Miss Kellett," said Dunn to himself. "Very well. Show her into the
study, I will come down.--It is the daughter of that unfortunate
gentleman we were speaking of awhile ago," said he, showing the card.
"I suppose some new disaster has befallen him. Will you excuse me for a
moment?"

As Dunn slowly descended the stairs, a very strange conflict was at
work within him. From his very boyhood there had possessed him a stern
sentiment of vengeance against the Kellett family. It was the daily
lesson his father repeated to him. It gr