good sense in that," chimed in Mosely, "and I second it."

"Carried with unanimity," said O'Shea, as, turning to the servant, he
muttered something in broken French.

"Well, I'm sure, I never!" mumbled Quackinboss to himself; but what he
meant, or to what new circumstance in his life's experience he alluded,
there is unhappily no explanation in this history; but he followed the
rest with a drooping head and an air of half-melancholy resignation that
was not by any means unusual with him.

CHAPTER V. ACCIDENTS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

When the young Marquis had made his escape from sightseeing, and all its
attendant inflictions, he was mainly bent on what he would himself
have called being "very jolly,"--that is to say, going his own way
unmolested, strolling the road he fancied, and following out his own
thoughts. Not that these same thoughts absolutely needed for their
exercise or development any extraordinary advantages of solitude and
retirement. He was no deep-minded sage, revolving worlds to come,--no
poet, in search of the inspiring influence of nature,--no subtle
politician, balancing the good and evil of some nice legislation. He
was simply one of those many thousand England yearly turns out from her
public schools of fine, dashing, free-hearted, careless boys, whose most
marked feature in character is a wholesome horror of all that is mean
or shabby. Less than a year before, he had been a midshipman in her
Majesty's gun-boat "Mosquito;" the death of an elder brother had made
him a Marquis, with the future prospect of several thousands a year.

He had scarcely seen or known his brother, so he grieved very little
for his loss, but he sorrowed sincerely over the change of fortune that
called him from his sea life and companions to an "on-shore" existence,
and instead of the gun-room and its gay guests, gave him the proprieties
of station and the requirements of high rank. One of his guardians
thought he ought to go into the Guards; another advised a university;
both agreed upon a tutor, and Mr. Layton was found, a young man of small
fortune, whose health, injured by over-reading for honors, required
change of scene and rest. They had been companions for a very short
time, but had, as the young Lord would have said, "hit it off" admirably
together; that is to say, partly from a just appreciation of his pupil,
and partly out of a natural indolence of disposition, Layton interfered
very little with him, gave