've fixed the question all straight."

"Show-places are show-places; the people who take them know it," blurted
out Mr. Morgan. "Ay, and what's more, they're proud of it."

"They are, Tom," said his wife, authoritatively.

"If you 'd give me one of them a present, for the living in it, I 'd
not take it No, sir, I 'd not," reiterated Morgan, with a fierce energy.
"What is a man in such a case, sir, but a sort of appraiser, a kind of
agent to show off his own furniture, telling you to remark that cornice,
and not to forget that malachite chimney-piece?"

"Very civil of him, certainly," said Layton, in his low, quiet voice,
which at the same time seemed to quiver with a faint irony.

"No, sir, not civil, only boastful; mere purse-pride, nothing more."

"Nothing, Tom,--absolutely nothing."

"What's before the house this evening,--the debate looks animated?"
said a fine bright-eyed boy of about fourteen, who lounged carelessly on
Layton's shoulder as he came up.

"It was a little scheme to visit the Villa Caprini, my Lord," said
Mosely, not sorry to have the opportunity of addressing himself to a
person of title.

"How jolly, eh, Alfred? What say you to the plan?" said the boy,
merrily.

Layton answered something, but in a tone too low to be overheard.

"Oh, as to that," replied the boy, quickly, "if he be an Englishman who
lives there, surely some of us must know him."

"The very remark I was about to make, my Lord," smiled in Mrs. Morris.

"Well, then, we agree to go there; that 's the main thing," said O'Shea.
"Two carriages, I suppose, will hold us; and, as to the time, shall we
say to-morrow?"

To-morrow was unanimously voted by the company, who now set themselves
to plot the details of the expedition, amidst which not the least knotty
was, who were to be the fellow-travellers with Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, a
post of danger assuredly not sought for with any heroic intrepidity,
while an equally eager intrigue was on foot about securing the presence
of the young Marquis of Agincourt and his tutor, Mr. Layton. The ballot,
however, routed all previous machinations, deciding that the young peer
was to travel with the Morgans and Colonel Quackinboss, an announcement
which no deference to the parties themselves could prevent being
received with a blank disappointment, except by Mr. Layton, who simply
said,--

"We shall take care to be in time, Mrs. Morgan." And then, drawing his
pupil's arm within his own, stroll