me roof with Lady Ella, he flushed and trembled as he had
never done before.

"I shall see her," he muttered wildly to himself. "I shall see her in
the 'alls, the 'alls of dazzling light." It is something of a wonder
that he did not lose his mental balance altogether.

When he was daily in the presence of Ella, the little man's heart ached
with sweet anguish and helpless worship and desire. Yet before her he
was tongue-tied, incapable of uttering a consecutive sentence. With her
sister, Lady Alice Santerre, who had been the intended bride of the
deceased heir to the Gallowbay Estate, Kimberley felt on a different
footing. He had hardly ever been so much at ease with anybody in his
life as this young lady made him.

Kimberley's own anxious efforts at self-improvement, Lady Alice's
good-natured advice, and the bold policy of the earl, who persuaded him
to undergo the terrors of an election, and get returned to Parliament as
member for Gallowbay, gradually made the millionaire a more presentable
person. He learned how to avoid dropping his h's; but two vices were
incurable--the shyness and his appalling taste in dress.

The world, meanwhile, had guessed at the earl's motives in extending his
friendship to Kimberley, and the little man's name was knowingly linked
with that of Lady Alice. Kimberley came to hear what the world was
saying through meeting Mr. Blandy, his former employer. Mr. Blandy
invited him to his house, honoured the occasion with champagne, drank
freely of it, and became confidential.

"The noble earl'll nail you f' one o' the girls, Kimbly. I'm a lill bit
'fected when I think, seeing my dear Kimbly 'nited marriage noble
family. That's what makes me talk like this. I b'leeve you're gone coon
already, ole man. 'Gratulate you, allmy heart."

Kimberley went away in a degradation of soul. Was it possible that this
peer of the realm could be so coarsely and openly bent on securing him
and his money that the whole world should know of it? What had
Kimberley, he asked himself bitterly, to recommend him but his money?
But then, triumphing over his miseries, came the fancy--he could have
his dream of love; he had cried for the moon, and now he could have it.

_III.--Ella's Martyrdom_

The earl's liabilities amounted roughly to ninety thousand pounds. The
principal mortgagee was insisting upon payment or foreclosure, and there
was a general feeling abroad that the estate was involved beyond its
capacity