ine,--as was much the habit with young men of rank and fortune some
years since,--he was not altogether lying. There was indeed a sounder
basis of truth than was usually to be found attached to his
statements. That he should have intended to produce a false impression
was a matter of course,--and nearly equally so that he should have made
his attempt by asserting things which he must have known that no one
would believe. He was going to Germany, and he was going in company
with a clergyman, and it had been decided that he should remain there
for the next twelve months. A representation had lately been made to
the Bishop of London that the English Protestants settled in a certain
commercial town in the north-eastern district of Prussia were without
pastoral aid, and the bishop had stirred himself in the matter. A
clergyman was found willing to expatriate himself, but the income
suggested was very small. The Protestant English population of the
commercial town in question, though pious, was not liberal. It had
come to pass that the 'Morning Breakfast Table' had interested itself
in the matter, having appealed for subscriptions after a manner not
unusual with that paper. The bishop and all those concerned in the
matter had fully understood that if the 'Morning Breakfast Table'
could be got to take the matter up heartily, the thing would be done.
The heartiness had been so complete that it had at last devolved upon
Mr Broune to appoint the clergyman; and, as with all the aid that
could be found, the income was still small, the Rev. Septimus Blake,--a
brand snatched from the burning of Rome,--had been induced to undertake
the maintenance and total charge of Sir Felix Carbury for a
consideration. Mr Broune imparted to Mr Blake all that there was to
know about the baronet, giving much counsel as to the management of
the young man, and specially enjoining on the clergyman that he should
on no account give Sir Felix the means of returning home. It was
evidently Mr Broune's anxious wish that Sir Felix should see as much
as possible of German life, at a comparatively moderate expenditure,
and under circumstances that should be externally respectable if not
absolutely those which a young gentleman might choose for his own
comfort or profit;--but especially that those circumstances should not
admit of the speedy return to England of the young gentleman himself.

Lady Carbury had at first opposed the scheme. Terribly difficult as
was