to me as you did now—that is, put the thing
in the present forcible light——"

"O, I know," groaned Hanbury. " I am
sure of it. But I am so awkward, and clumsy,
and stupid, I always do something heavy and
foolish. And now," he continued, with a doleful
smile, " the only thing left for me is to bear it
as best I can, and go off to the sheep-walks
again. I am sure to make no blunders there.
Good-by."

Fermor went away full of real pity and
compassion for this " honest poor soul," who in so
confiding a way exhibited his foolish heart to all
comers. " He will hawk his sorrows all over
the place," thought Fermor. "Perhaps it will
be the best thing that could happen to him,
if he only knew how to get profit out of his
misfortune. But he does not. If I were in his
place, it would be a whole fortune to me." Even
as it turned out, it was a whole fortune to him,
for Hanbury's acute sufferings seemed to make
his victory more precious.

"It is curious," he thought, as he came away,
"how everything falls into the groove I lay out
for it." Then he began to think how, by practice
and skill, this mysterious faculty of his would
grow to a wonderful perfection, and lead him
into the foremost ranks—parliamentary and
ministerial, perhaps—with very different
elements to deal with than Hanbury.

But it was not until he first saw Thersites
Showers in full mess council, when the chiefs
met at dinner, that he reaped all the profit of
the step he had taken. When Fermor came in
among them they looked at each other shyly, at
him with reverence. They were boys after all,
and they felt their boyhood. Here was their
master. He who had indifferently tolerated all
their childish splashing in the water, their
making mud-pies, and was all the time calmly
plotting this brilliant coup de théâtre. They all
seemed to feel their littleness in his presence.
He walked in like a hero, and was very gracious
to them. But his real superiority lay in the
defeat of Showers. Just as the regiment had
its adjutant and messman, and even a brains
carrier or two, so Showers was kept in pay as
their sarcastic sharpshooter. In a lull, or in a
critical moment, he was ordered to the front,
like the comic-song singer among the privates
on a march. Now he seemed to be cashiered.
He had broken down, and was held in contempt.

"Someway," said Fermor, after the mess
dinner, in the great arm-chair, and with his hands
in his pockets, looking down the length of his
legs, as it were, along a level, "you see I know
myself thoroughly, and what I can do. Anything
I lay myself out for seriously I can bring about in
the long run. I don't," continued Fermor,
modestly looking round on them all, " set up to do
more than other men, but, you see, I make more
of my materials. Another thing," he continued,
"when I make up my mind to a thing, I always
have it done at once. Every second of dawdling
over a serious step is diminishing its value. It
is like," continued he, smiling at some pleasant
little fancies that were coming into his mind,
"like, say, so much out of the proceeds of a bill,
commission, brokerage, and that sort of thing."
And in this fashion Captain Fermor lectured
away for a long time to a very serious and
attentive congregat ion. He came home very well
satisfied with himself, in a cloud of will-o'-the-
wisp conviction that he had really carried off a
prize, defeated innumerable competitors, and
was on a sort of envied table-land looking down
on all, and regarded with a wistful admiration.

CHAPTER XXIII. THE FERMOR FAMILY.

LADY LAURA FERMOR, fourth daughter of a
late Earl of Hungerford, was well recollected
by many gentlemen with grey whiskers as Lady
Laura Stonehewer. Tall, almost plain, with a
gauntness about her shoulders, kept in confinement
by secret power below, from which they
seemed struggling to escape by sudden contortions.
Yet she had " style" and " tone;" and
as she performed her scenes in the circle with
daring, and went round and round in the social
circus with rapidity, she came to be admired.
Like the ugly Mr. Wilkes, she was but a few
seconds behind the loveliest; and some extra
exertion and hard riding always brought her to
the front.

She had been long in the service. For
years she had been in the drawing-rooms, and
met indifferent sport. At last, a mild country
gentleman—Thornton Fermor, Esq., of the
Holyoakes—looking down one evening, saw
her in her gauze and spangles dashing by,
almost covering him in a cloud of the
sawdust. He was delighted with her " dash" and
action. The shoulders were, luckily, not
insubordinate. Lady Laura Stonehewer became
Lady Laura Fermor, and retired down to the
Holyoakes, where the surrounding gentry
delighted in sending notes, requesting the pleasure
of "Mr. Fermor's and Lady Laura Fermor's
company at dinner," and positively rang them
joyfully together in concert, as though they had
been a peal of church bells.

In due time they began to contribute to the
Heraldic Koran; and the mild Thornton " by
her had issue:"

1. Charles Hungerford;
2. Alicia Mary;
3. Blanche; and
4. Laura.

Charles Hungerford grew up, became a
fashionable child and boy, never showed the
least taste for ostler or kitchen society, took
no interest in stable, ostler, or kitchen topics,
and, in the lower ranks, was considered a cold,
stuck up lad, with " no manners." To him his
mother was an indefatigable missionary, preaching
the gospel of good society, and the
companionship of genteel confessors. "However
high you are," she was always saying to him,
"look a little higher, and you will be sure, if
you do not advance, to keep your place. Everything
has a tendency to slide down." So with
dress and appearance. The best clothes, the
dearest and best tailor, these were cheaper in
the end than the cheapest and meanest, as they