yong mann of a candour and simplicity to be
adored! Adored, I do assure you! It is rare
to meet so a yong mann! Fresh, ardent, yet
woise, oh so woise, he tell me ou to manage my
lands, an oder wonderfool tings! Well, dis
yong mann I tell my aunt to be one Scottish
lord, and moch in loff with her; she see the
yong mann on a stair, call him 'My lord,' and
by-and-by she go to Stamboul after him. Figure
to you then, I pray, what affair I have with
that aunt and her four husbands at Bucharest
when I go there, and she find out Monsieur
Andairson agent for corn-broker! Pity me, I
pray you;" and so on, as long as it is pleasant
to talk or listen.

It is thus clear that there is no field at
present open to a genius of the prince's calibre
in the local Russian markets. But he is always
too well informed for that to prove a
difficulty; and at the critical moment one of the
Cossack generals in command on the Danubian
frontier who has been long looking out for an
occasion of speculating with Dooyoumalsky, writes
to him to say that a British bank has just been
opened at Galatz for the purpose of making
advances on grain; and also that an Irish gentleman
from Belfast has been making inquiries
which lead to the belief that he intends to
establish a branch house at Ibraïla. He is a hopeful
Irish gentleman, formerly a Crimean major
of dragoons. He has a brother who is a
thriving manufacturer at Belfast, and so he
has sold out of a crack regiment to join
him. The worthy fraternity have asked
themselves whether some very cautiously
conducted exchanges of Hibernian linen and Moldo-
Wallachian corn might not be arranged in a
manner advantageous to all parties. The major,
who is a fine, genial, honest gentleman, by no
means wanting in brains, has suggested this
idea. Returning home from the siege of
Sebastopol, he became enslaved by the charms of a
boyard's widow, and has now hastened back to
urge his suit and his fortunes together. So it
appears that the Cossack general's information,
allowing for a little exaggeration (no Russian
could tell news without that), is substantially
correct.

Before the bank has paid a single
acceptance, before the Irish major has even
thought of taking lodgings, Dooyoumalsky is
with them. His diplomacy is perfect. No love-
tricks with elderly aunts upon the square-toed,
solid-looking banker. My prince has got his
photograph, and knows that this little game
would not do. The banker is too plump in the
waist, too bald on the pate, and there is a stern
keen look under those bushy eyebrows that
warns my prince off that ground.
Dooyoumalsky knows that the banker is not a man to
be trifled with or tricked under ordinary
circumstances, as well as if he had lived with him
twenty years. My prince is aware that he is
more difficult to be caught than the shyest
trout in a Tyrolean brook; but he has caught,
trouts even there in his young days, and so
sure as that banker's name is William Heavyside,
my prince will catch and land him likewise.
Indeed, Dooyoumalsky has long had an eye
upon him. He was at the Isle of Wight last
autumn just when it so happened that Mr.
Heavyside was there also. He had come for his
health after twenty years' prosperous trading
among the wily Chinamen. My prince had
frequently heard the wealth and integrity of
the banker extolled by the happy islanders of
Cowes and Shanklin. It was affirmed, moreover,
that the merchants of Pekin had presented
him with a farewell testimonial, and publicly
expressed their regret that his health prevented
him from remaining with them.

My prince carefully marked all this down for
future use, and is heartily glad to see that Mr.
Heavyside, tired of inactivity, has resolved to
try the corn countries before he settles to
repose and brings out his daughters as a county
magistrate in England. Dooyoumalsky, indeed,
finds it a very good speculation to appear from
time to time in the British Islands. Our
court journals, court circulars, and fashionable
intelligence writers are so fond of talking
about foreign princes, and calling them
highnesses all round indiscriminately, that my prince
and many of his brethren find it a profitable
advertisement to go to Britain. A week at
a fashionable hotel, and a paragraph adroitly
inserted in an evening paper, quite brush up a
nobleman's tarnished reputation in Russia, and
make it shine again. It has been known, over
and over again, to transform an arrant cheat
into an oppressed patriot of the loftiest dimensions;
but, upon the whole, I am inclined to
think that it succeeds oftenest and best as a pure
trade venture. The British money market may
be always wooed with success by a smart
foreigner who is impudent, loud, and
unscrupulous enough to court it properly.

For some days previous to the prince's
arrival at Galatz, telegrams come pouring in
from the uttermost ends of the earth.
Dooyoumalsky is no common traveller, and he spends
enough on telegrams in a month to keep him
honestly for two, if he cared to live cleanly.
Thus the banker, one day, going to dine at the
hotel, because his own cook is drunk and absent,
finds a magnificent apparition in the doorway.
This is a Circassian chief, in the full uniform or
costume of his country. He is a tall man, of
remarkable grace and personal beauty. He looks,
and he is, as brave as a lion. He is a perfect
model of glorious health and strength in its
most perfect development. His gay silken
clothes blaze with silver; his gorgeous arms
and his belt are encrusted with gems.
There is quite a crowd round him, and several
persons whom the banker has heard are warm
men. Near him stands a fair-haired, blue-
eyed young man, with delicately pencilled
moustachios. He is evidently dressed by Mr.
Poole in the height of fashion. His white
beringed hands are full of unopened telegrams
and letters with large official seals. About the
inn-yard are several flushed and heated Tartar
couriers who have just spurred in; and a shaggy