you see, with an encumbered estate; and, in
order to clear it, I was obliged to sell three of
the best little farms in the county. I even sold
a slice of the old park, and that was the greatest
sorrow of my life."

"I can well believe it," said Saxon.

"Consequently, I am now obliged to do the
best I can with a large house and a small
income."

"Still you have cleared off the
encumbrances?"

The Earl nodded.

"All of them?"

"Yes, thank Heaven! all."

Saxon drew his chair a little nearer, and
looked his friend earnestly in the face.

"Pray don't think me impertinent," said he;
"but—but I've seen you looking anxious at
times—and somehow I have fancied . . . .
Would you mind telling me, Castletowers, if
you have really any trouble on your mind? Any
outstanding claim, for instance, that—that …"

"That a generous fellow like yourself could
help me to meet? No, Trefalden—not one. I
thank you heartily for your kind thought, but I
owe no man a penny."

Saxon drew a deep breath of satisfaction.
He would scarcely have liked to confess, even
to himself, with how keen a sense of relief he
found his cousin's statement corroborated.

"I rejoice to hear it," he replied. "And
now, Castletowers, you must promise that you
will go up with me the day after to-morrow,
and make my rooms your hotel. I have three
there in St. James's-street, and I can have a
couple more if I like; and you don't know how
lonely I feel in them."

"You are good nature itself," said the Earl;
"but indeed…."

"It's not good nature—it's pure selfishness.
I like London. I am intensely interested in
its multitudinous life and intellectual activity;
but it is a terrible place to live in all alone. If,
however, I had a couple of rooms which I might
call your rooms, and which I knew you would
occupy whenever you were in town, the place
would seem more like home to me."

"But, my dear fellow…."

"One moment, please! I know, of course,
that it is, in one sense, a monstrous presumption
on my part to ask you to do this. You are
an English peer, and I am a Swiss peasant; but
then you have received me here as your guest,
and treated me as if I were your equal…."

"Trefalden, hear me," interrupted the Earl,
vehemently. "You know my political creed—
you know that, setting friendship, virtue,
education aside, I hold all men to be literally and
absolutely equal under heaven?"

"Yes, as an abstract principle…."

"Precisely so—as an abstract principle. But
abstract and concrete are two very different
things; and permit me to tell you that I have
the honour and happiness of knowing two men
who, so far as I am competent to judge myself
and them, are as immeasurably superior to me
in all that constitutes true nobility, as if there
were no such principle as equality under the
sun. And those two men are Giulio Colonna
and Saxon Trefalden."

Saxon laughed and coloured up.

"What reply can I make to such a magnificent
compliment?" said he.

"Beg my pardon, I should think, for the
speech that provoked it."

"But do you really mean it?"

"Every word of it."

"Then I will go up to town a day sooner,
and prepare your rooms at once. If that's your
opinion of me, you can't refuse to grant the
first favour I have ever asked at your hands."

The Earl smiled and shook his head.

"We will talk of that by-and-by," he said.
"If I have not acceded at once, it is through
no want of confidence in your friendship."

"I should look upon it as a strong proof of
yours," said Saxon.

"I came to your room to-day, Trefalden, to
give you a much stronger proof of it," replied
the Earl, gravely.

The words were simple enough, but something
in the tone in which they were uttered
arrested Saxon's attention.

"You may be sure that I shall value it,
whatever it may be," said he; and waited for
Lord Castletowers to proceed.

But the Earl was, apparently, in no haste to
do so. Swaying idly to and fro, and watching
the light smoke of his cigar, he remained for
some moments silent, as if hesitating how and
where to begin. At length he said:

"I do believe, Trefalden, that you are the
best fellow breathing."

"That I certainly am not," replied Saxon;
"so pray don't think it."

"But I do think it; and it is just because
I think it that I am here now. I want to tell
you something."

Saxon bent his head, and listened.

"Something which I have been keeping lo
myself for years, because—well, because I have
never had a friend to whom I could confide it—
I mean a really intimate friend whom I could
trust, as I know I may trust you."

"Thank you," said Saxon, simply.

"I have felt the want of such an one,
bitterly," continued the Earl. "It's hard to be
for ever brooding over one idea, without being
able to seek sympathy or counsel."

"I should think it must be," replied Saxon;
"but I've never had a secret of my own."

"Then, my dear fellow," said the Earl,
throwing away the end of his cigar with a very
gloomy look, "you have never been in love."

Saxon made no reply. He had fully anticipated
some confidence on the subject of money,
and his friend's rejoinder took him by surprise.

Had he been asked, he could not have told
why it was so; but the surprise, somehow, was
not a pleasant one.

"The truth is, Trefalden," said the Earl, "I
am a very unlucky, and a very miserable fellow.
I love a woman whom I have no hope of
marrying."