fied of the rectitude of Lambourne's conduct, Varney began to
talk to him upon his future prospects, and the mode in which he meant
to bestow himself, intimating that he understood from Foster he was not
disinclined to enter into the household of a nobleman.

"Have you," said he, "ever been at court?"

"No," replied Lambourne; "but ever since I was ten years old, I have
dreamt once a week that I was there, and made my fortune."

"It may be your own fault if your dream comes not true," said Varney.
"Are you needy?"

"Um!" replied Lambourne; "I love pleasure."

"That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one," said Varney. "Know
you aught of the requisites expected from the retainer of a rising
courtier?"

"I have imagined them to myself, sir," answered Lambourne; "as, for
example, a quick eye, a close mouth, a ready and bold hand, a sharp wit,
and a blunt conscience."

"And thine, I suppose," said Varney, "has had its edge blunted long
since?"

"I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever over-keen," replied
Lambourne. "When I was a youth, I had some few whimsies; but I rubbed
them partly out of my recollection on the rough grindstone of the wars,
and what remained I washed out in the broad waves of the Atlantic."

"Thou hast served, then, in the Indies?"

"In both East and West," answered the candidate for court service, "by
both sea and land. I have served both the Portugal and the Spaniard,
both the Dutchman and the Frenchman, and have made war on our own
account with a crew of jolly fellows, who held there was no peace beyond
the Line." [Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold buccaneer of
those days, were, in fact, little better than pirates.]

"Thou mayest do me, and my lord, and thyself, good service," said
Varney, after a pause. "But observe, I know the world--and answer me
truly, canst thou be faithful?"

"Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my duty to
say ay, without further circumstance, and to swear to it with life and
honour, and so forth. But as it seems to me that your worship is one who
desires rather honest truth than politic falsehood, I reply to you, that
I can be faithful to the gallows' foot, ay, to the loop that dangles
from it, if I am well used and well recompensed--not otherwise."

"To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in a
jeering tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when the
moment demands it?"

"It would cost m