you will find
the yearly sum you have hitherto received doubled. To give you this
information is the chief reason why I sent for you this morning. God
bless you, my dear boy."

And Talbot shut the door, despite his politeness, in the face and thanks
of his adopted son.

CHAPTER XXXI.

There is a great difference between seeking to raise a laugh from
everything, and seeking in everything what justly may be laughed
at. LORD SHAFTESBURY.

Behold our hero, now in the zenith of distinguished dissipations!
Courteous, attentive, and animated, the women did not esteem him the
less for admiring them rather than himself; while, by the gravity of
his demeanour to men,--the eloquent, yet unpretending flow of his
conversation, whenever topics of intellectual interest were discussed,
the plain and solid sense which he threw into his remarks, and the
avidity with which he courted the society of all distinguished for
literary or political eminence,--he was silently but surely establishing
himself in esteem as well as popularity, and laying the certain
foundation of future honour and success.

Thus, although he had only been four months returned to England, he was
already known and courted in every circle, and universally spoken of
as among "the most rising young gentlemen" whom fortune and the
administration had marked for their own. His history, during the four
years in which we have lost sight of him, is briefly told.

He soon won his way into the good graces of Lord Aspeden; became his
private secretary and occasionally his confidant. Universally admired
for his attraction of form and manner, and, though aiming at reputation,
not averse to pleasure, he had that position which fashion confers at
the court of ----, when Lady Westborough and her beautiful daughter,
then only seventeen, came to ----, in the progress of a Continental
tour, about a year before his return to England. Clarence and Lady Flora
were naturally brought much together in the restricted circle of a small
court, and intimacy soon ripened into attachment.

Lord Aspeden being recalled, Clarence accompanied him to England; and
the ex-minister, really liking much one who was so useful to him, had
faithfully promised to procure him the office and honour of secretary
whenever his lordship should be reappointed minister.

Three intimate acquaintances had Clarence Linden. The one was the
Honourable Henry Trollolop, the se