recently discharging the humble duties of a
horse-rider's dresser in the gardens of Ranelagh,
was now a princess.

But the jewels and the fine dresses did not
make Lily happy. In the midst of the splendour
in which she lived, she was thinking with an
aching heart of Edgar. His sudden disappearance
on the night of her mother's death, and the
return of his cheque, filled her with a vague
fear that something had happened to him. She
shrank from making inquiries about him; partly
from a feeling of modesty, partly because she
was unwilling that any one should think
she doubted him. She resolved to say nothing
on the subject, for a time at least; hoping that
he would soon call to see her, or that she might
meet him in the Park during her rides and drives.
She went into the Park daily, either in her
brougham, or on horseback. She had taken
lessons at a riding-school, and became in a very
short space of time an accomplished horse-
woman. She had learned fast; for love was
her teacher. She had learned to ride, that she
might dispense with the attendance of a coachman
and footman, and go out in the Park on
horseback "Quite Alone." Her uncle humoured
her in everything. If she had desired to ride
in the Park on an elephant, he would have sent
emissaries into Africa to procure her the finest
specimen that could be found.

Weeks passed away, and Edgar had not called
at the hotel; nor had Lily succeeded in meeting
him in the Park. Her uncle and Constant
both observed that, spite of her daily exercise in
the fresh air, she was becoming pale, and thin,
and careworn. Constant was aware of Lily's
passion for Edgar, and feeling assured that her
malady was love-sickness, he begged to be
admitted to her confidence. After some hesitation
she told him the state of the case frankly.
She had been looking for Edgar day after day,
and week after week, but in vain. She was
afraid that he was ill, or that some misfortune
had befallen him. Constant undertook to make
inquiries. He did so; and found that the
magnificent Mr. Greyfaunt had been arrested
for debt, and was locked up in a spunging-house
in Cursitor-street.

The young scapegrace had set up for a man
of fashion upon the little fortune left him by his
grand-aunt, Madame de Kergolay. It amounted
to five thousand pounds, neither more nor less,
and Edgar had spent the principal instead of the
interest, living for the time at the rate of three
thousand a year.

Constant did not at once inform Lily of the
discovery he had made. He was anxious to find
out what sort of person Mr. Edgar Greyfaunt
was. He had no particular doubts about him
before; but now, when he heard of him as the
inhabitant of a spunging-house, he began at once
to suspect that Edgar was a very bad young
fellow. As a prosperous innkeeper, Monsieur
Constant regarded impecuniosity in a gentleman
of Mr. Greyfaunt's position as the worst of
crimes.

Constant employed Franz Stimm as his emissary
and agent. Stimm visited the spunging-
house, and saw Edgar, saying that he came from
an unknown friend who was anxious to serve
him. A few weeks behind prison bars had
worked a great change upon the dandy—the
usual change. The loss of liberty had degraded
him, as it degrades nearly all men, however
proud their spirit, however high their moral tone.
In a few weeks the elegant exquisite had been
transformed into a shabby, slouching, jail-bird.
He had taken to slippers and wide-awake hats, to
spirits-and-water and clay pipes. He shuffled
about in a paved yard behind the bars, and
associated without scruple with all comers. Debt
is a great leveller—as great a leveller almost as
death. In a spunging-house or a prison it brings
all ranks together, and links them in the bond
of a common brotherhood. The most noble
person in a debtors' prison is he who owes most
money. But the pettiest shopkeeper is on a
footing with a lord in one respect—he is a
debtor. The influence of debt and durance
manifests itself in both alike—it conduces to
down-at-heel shoes, carelessness as to clean
linen, the growth of the beard, the smoking of
common kinds of tobacco, and the consumption
of vulgar drinks. Even if the lord have money,
he finds, after a short residence in a debtors'
prison, that he is acquiring a taste for the grosser
kinds of luxuries. He begins to prefer shag
tobacco to cigars, and to have an inordinate
craving for beer.

Edgar very soon succumbed to the genius of
that dingy house in Cursitor-street. Franz Stimm
wondered what the preddy leddle leddi could see
in such a shabby-looking fellow. Franz was
armed with very careful instructions. He
informed Greyfaunt of Lily's accession to fortune.
She had found her uncle, a rich Indian nabob (he
did not mention his name), who had adopted her,
and designed to leave her the whole of his vast
wealth.

Edgar caught at the news eagerly, and his
eyes sparkled with expectancy. "What a fool!
what an ass I have been!" he muttered to
himself. He questioned Stimm as to the motives
of the unknown friend who had sent him the
news. Stimm explained that the unknown friend,
who was aware of the position in which Mr.
Greyfaunt stood towards Miss Lily, had an eye
to business.

"Ah, I perceive," said Edgar; "he is a money-
lender, and you are his agent."

Franz admitted that that might be the case.

"Well, look here," said Edgar; "if you will
lend me the money and get me out of this
cursed place, you shall have a hundred per cent
for your master, and fifty per cent for yourself.
It is only a miserable sum of two hundred
pounds."

"But de security?" said Stimm.

"I have no security to offer you but my own
note of hand," said Greyfaunt, "and you know
what my expectations are. The girl is madly in
love with me, and I have only to make her an
offer to secure the prize. She will throw herself
into my arms, fortune and all."