n help it, Mr Palliser, I never think of anything."
The stranger was now standing near to them,--almost so near that he
might hear their words. Burgo, perceiving this, walked up to him,
and, speaking in bad French, desired him to leave them. "Don't you
see that I have a friend with me?"

"Oh! a friend," said the man, answering in bad English. "Perhaps de
friend can advance moneys?"

"Never mind what he can do," said Burgo. "You do as you are bid, and
leave me."

Then the gentleman from the hotel retreated down the hill, but Mr
Palliser, during the rest of the interview, frequently fancied that
he heard the man's footfall at no great distance.

They continued to walk on up the hill very slowly, and it was some
time before Mr Palliser knew how to repeat his offer.

"So Lady Glencora is here?" Burgo said again.

"Yes, she is here. It was she who asked me to come to you," Mr
Palliser answered. Then they both walked on a few steps in silence,
for neither of them knew how to address the other.

"By George!--isn't it odd," said Burgo, at last, "that you and I, of
all men in the world, should be walking together here at Baden? It's
not only that you're the richest man in London, and that I'm the
poorest, but--; there are other things, you know, which make it so
funny."

"There have been things which make me and my wife very anxious to
give you aid."

"And have you considered, Mr Palliser, that those things make you the
very man in the world,--indeed, for the matter of that, the only man
in the world,--from whom I can't take aid. I would have taken it all
if I could have got it,--and I tried hard."

"I know you have been disappointed, Mr Fitzgerald."

"Disappointed! By G----! yes. Did you ever know any man who had so
much right to be disappointed as I have? I did love her, Mr Palliser.
Nay, by heavens! I do love her. Out here I will dare to say as much
even to you. I shall never try to see her again. All that is over, of
course. I've been a fool about her as I have been about everything.
But I did love her."

"I believe it, Mr Fitzgerald."

"It was not altogether her money. But think what it would have been
to me, Mr Palliser. Think what a chance I had, and what a chance
I lost. I should have been at the top of everything,--as now I am
at the bottom. I should not have spent that. There would have been
enough of it to have saved me. And then I might have done something
good instead of crawling about almost in fe