Printed by Rogerson & Tuxford, 246, Strand, London.

The stranger raised his head, and from beneath his bushy and impending eyebrows darted a half contemptuous, half irritated look, which could not have failed to overturn the assurance of any individual less self-possessed than a London waiter.

'Everything! Indeed. Such a provision leaves no difficulty save that of choice. Send me, in that case, a dish of curried quails. Half

"Sir!" said the startled functionary, dallying with the very questionably-coloured napkin which dangled from his arm; "quails are not now in season."

"Ha, really;" was the quiet rejoinder; "that is unfortunate. And so you actually have seasons here-here-" and he pointed to the dirtbegrimed window, rendered still more opaque by a yellow, sullen-looking November fog; seasons-well, I should not have thought it. Do the seasons affect your sheep? If not, bring me a dish of mutton chops, a plate of potatoes, a bottle of pale ale, and pens, ink, and paper." "Directly, sir."

66

"At last!" murmured an aged, sallow, and ill-dressed traveller, as, with a fastidiousness which appeared altogether supererogatory to the dingy but dignified waiter, and the ringletted chambermaid of a second-rate hotel in Holborn, after having personally ascertained the safe dis-a-dozen birds will suffice." posal of his by no means superabundant luggage in his destined bedchamber, he flung himself down, wearied and considerably out of temper, in one of the close boxes of the coffee-room. "At last I am once more in London. London! the remembered paradise of my boyhood, the bright dream of sixty years of exile, the goal of all my hopes-and this murky, muddy, miserable huddling together of smoky houses, deafening din, rusty-coated men, and bespattered women-this is London! Oh, Reginald Lyle, Reginald Lyle! like the many fools at whom you have amused yourself by laughing throughout the course of a tolerably long life, it would appear that you too have in your turn been wasting your time and exhausting your energies in the pursuit of a flying feather, which, now that you have caught it, is glued to your fingers by the mire and filth of all the kennels over which it has skimmed in its progress. A worthy climax to an existence of labour truly is this. Faugh! who can breathe in an atmosphere so thick, that by submitting to the exertion, he might cut it like mustard, or by besmearing it over his countenance henceforward walk through the world as invisible, in so far as regards his real complexion, as the Man in the Iron Mask? Comfort in London-pshaw! It is a mere myth, the invention of some scatter-brained idiot. I have seen enough already; I could write a book on it. And I was born here: no wonder that as my poor mother gave me breath her own was taken from her. Two such insignificant individuals had no right to expect that there would be enough for both of them here!" "Did you call, sir?”

"The writing materials first, if you please. Do the chops lightly; boil the potatoes with plenty of salt; bespeak a messenger, as I shall have need of one to deliver my letter, and desire the landlord to come to me."

66

Immediately, sir."

The traveller took up the "Times," which lay on the table before him; turned to the arrival of the Mexican mail, read the article attentively through without the omission of a word, and then refolded the paper as though the remainder of its contents were utterly unimportant."

"Did you desire to see me, sir?" courteously demanded a stout, partially-bald, and whitecravatted individual, as he approached the stranger.

"If you are the master of the house, I did;" was the reply. "Be good enough to change this £50 note; to oblige me with a bottle of your best wine-no matter by what name you call it, so that you do not inflict upon me what is "No, I did not. But since you are come un-known in England as Madeira; and to direct bidden, be good enough to tell me what you have in the house that is eatable." "Everything, sir,"

your servant to be expeditious with the writing materials which I require."

The urbane landlord bent low, possessed

B

rendon, instead of which you had established your quarters in a Holborn caravanserai."

66

"Good enough for my coat;" smiled the traveller, glancing with a quiet smile at the rusty garment which had already excited the well-bred surprise of the butler and his powdered assistant. To-morrow I must trouble you to have my luggage passed through the custom-house, and to give me a list of your tradesmen: you know that I shall for a time be a mere child in this mighty Babylon, but I do not wish my deficiencies to be exposed to my loving relatives. Shall we ring for coffee, Mr. Brunton-and cigars, and settle ourselves for the evening?"

"With all my heart, Mr. Lyle; and while we are awaiting them, suffer me to congratulate you not only upon the admirable passage which you have made, but also upon your domestication in your own house. After all, sir-after all, confess that although we may be deficient in many of the luxuries, and much of the splendour of your Mexican home, Old England is Old England still."

not lived altogether in vain; and you must help me to do this."

"You may do more, much more than even this, Mr. Lyle; you possess the means of bestowing happiness on many."

"No, sir; no," exclaimed his companion impatiently; "I will confer no puny benefits; I will not gild over a score of struggling mediocrities, only to teach them to yearn after luxuries beyond their grasp, and to affect the threadbare dignity of would-be greatness. ONE shall have ALL; nothing can alter my determination, unless indeed among the descendants of the Lyles I should not find an individual in precisely the position requisite to render him eligible to become my heir; in which case you have schools and hospitals enough in England to disembarrass me of my ingots."

"And may I venture to inquire the nature of the qualities which you desire in your successor?"

"Only one, sir; only one. I am, as you will perceive, by no means exacting; but before I confide to you this my secret, you must pledge your solemn word as a gentleman, neither directly nor indirectly to reveal to any one my fixed and unalterable purpose; for should I ascertain that through your treachery, or even your inadvertence, the secret had transpired, and that the plan of my whole life had thus been frustrated, from that moment we must become absolute strangers.”

"Fear nothing, Mr. Lyle;" said his companion somewhat haughtily; "I am honest enough to be trusted, and old enough to be cautious; while, in a transaction of this nature, which must be considered as purely professional, my sole duty becomes fidelity and obedience to my employer."

"Pardon me, my good friend," said the tra

"That is a point beyond all argument, my good sir; but remember that even while I thank you for your congratulations, which I feel to be perfectly sincere, I may be permitted to look forward with some small degree of anxiety as regards the actual amount of either comfort or happiness which awaits me in my own land. I left it a mere boy, a troublesome supernumerary in a numerous family; dismissed by a well-born but slender-portioned father, a young stepmother with a tribe of relatives of her own, and sundry brothers and sisters who were already beginning to jostle each other on the great highway of life, with the paternal blessing, my passage paid to Lima, a hundred pounds in my pocket, a letter of introduction to one of the first firms in the country, and an intimation that if I threw away my chance, the next must be of my own pro-veller; "if I have unwittingly wounded your viding. I profited by the warning; the chance was not thrown away: I have returned to England a wealthy man. But, sir, I bring back with me the results of sixty years of toil. I have outlived father, brothers, and sisters; and those who now bear my name, and claim my blood, are strangers to me. I am alone in this great crowd; an alien alike from its affections, its feelings, and its habits. You must forgive me for thus speaking of myself, for even you are in some degree a stranger; and, as it is to you that I essentially look for sympathy and companionship, it is necessary that we should at once become better acquainted. Thus, then, I am alone. It is more than probable that many would be content to accept this isolation if it were gilded, as in my case, by the gold by which it is accompanied; but with sordid natures of that stamp I could have nothing in common. Other men have family ties, family affections, family anxieties, which have remained unknown and unfelt by me. I have lived for gain; but believe me when I declare that I have long ceased to value it for its own sake. I pine to taste before I die the happiness which is reflected from that of another-to feel that I have

feelings, when I only sought to impress upon you the extreme importance which I attach to this-what shall I call it ?-whim, if you will, which I have been nursing for the last thirty years as tenderly as ever mother nursed a crooked and peevish bantling, in which no one could discover any attraction but herself. And never allude again, I entreat of you, to our professional connexions. We have met to-day for the first time, it is true; but we had previously made an acquaintance of some standing, and which in the course of years has spread itself over some reams of paper. I could have borne the loss of your friendship in Mexico-I cannot dispense with it in England."

66

Enough, enough;" said Brunton; "and now you have my word, my solemn word, that I will keep your secret, which I confess has greatly excited my curiosity."

Mr. Lyle smiled, but a sigh escaped him at the same time. "First of all," he said, " do me the favour to introduce me, in so far as you are able to do so, to the whole range of my kindred, men, women, and children; their ages, cir cumstances, and habits; and the mighty secret will probably reveal itself in the process.”

questionable whether he may at all times be enabled to obey any summons with which you find yourself inclined to favour him."

66

"So be it then," was the reply of the lawyer, as he drew a folded paper from his pocketbook." You see that I have come prepared, for I was unwilling to trust to my memory in so Ha!" said Mr. Lyle, glancing down upon important a matter. In the first place, then, his own coat-sleeve; "under a cloud with his you are wrong in supposing that you had out-tailor, I presume. In short, my dear sir, I am lived all your sisters. The younger one, Miss Penelope Lyle, still survives.”

"Ha! little Pen, whom I left a baby in arms and yet she never wrote to inform me of her existence."

"Nevertheless, it is a certain fact that she

lives."

"Where? and how?"

"The where is Brompton; here, in the immediate neighbourhood of town. The how is on an annuity of two hundred pounds bequeathed to her by her godmother."

"Little Pen ! She, however, is only my half-sister, the child of my step-mother. Pass her by; she is ineligible."

"Mr. Percival Lyle, the son of your second brother; a merchant in the West India trade, married, with a family of three daughters." "In what circumstances?"

"Mrs. Stainton, the widow of another of your nephews. This lady is the head of a fashionable school at Clapham, with two sons; one a civil engineer, and the other curate of a West End chapel."

"Have you reached the end of your list? If so, the hospitals will be richer by some thousands."

Mr. Brunton paused a moment in astonishment, and then resumed:

"I have one more name registered; Octavius Lyle, the orphan son of your last brother, whose name he bears."

66

And what may be his profession?"

to understand, if I see my way clearly, that this precious nephew of mine, Mr. Octavius Lyle, is an agreeable vagabond, with a smooth tongue and a genius for blowing the flute; a diner-out when he can borrow a decent suit, and wheedle an invitation; paying his privilege with a fine phrase, and pandering to the weakness of his host in order to consume his champaign. Look you, Brunton; I was once the disgusted witness of a scene of this description. A friend of mine, a wealthy man, widowed and childless, who was known to be, as I am now, engaged in that most uncommon of all pursuits, hunting for an heir, had picked up just such an agreeable and specious gentleman as you describe, whom I had the distinguished honour of meeting at his table. It was a fine display of talent, my dear sir; a wonderful exhibition of the ductility of the human mind. My friend chanced to express his regret at the departure of an old acquaintance for England; It must, indeed, have been a sad trial to you, sir,' remarked his protégé with great sympathy. Well, after all, I don't know,' was the retort; he was so insufferably self-sufficient, that he occasionally tried my temper beyond all endurance; and more than once I have wished him safely landed at home, and established in what he was pleased to call the bosom of his family.'-' A happy release, indeed, sir,' was the rejoinder of the parasite; and this false and fulsome adulation continued throughout the evening, increasing the folly of the patron, and the degradation of the protégé, until the heart of an honest man heaved with indignation, and his soul swelled with disgust of his own species. Have we done, Mr. Brunton?"

66

Such is the catalogue of your remaining relations, sir; and I believe it to be a correct one."

appear to be collectively within my reach.”

"I thank you. It might have been more satisfactory-commencing as it does with an Really, Mr. Lyle," said the lawyer; "you old maid, and ending with a scapegrace. Howhave now asked a question which I am totally ever, these are circumstances over which we unable to answer; not from any want of exer- have no control; and my next step must be to tion, believe me; but simply because I fear that announce my arrival, and to tender the right your young relative would find great difficulty hand of fellowship to each and all of my worthy in solving the problem himself. Do not, how-kinsfolk. It is at least convenient that they ever, I beg of you, allow this fact to prejudice you against him; for, in so far as I have been able to ascertain, no fault is to be attributed to the young man himself, who has constantly evinced a great desire to work his way in the world, but who is one of those unfortunate offcasts of fortune, who always begin everything at the wrong end, and at the wrong moment. I have heard, however, that he is possessed of considerable talent, and an energy which will not yield to the pressure of adverse circumstances; although I fear that he occasionally finds himself in a position which must render it extremely

There was a pause. The lawyer was still at fault; and his companion sat, flung back in his well-cushioned chair, gazing intently into the fire, and apparently lost in thought, although his countenance remained as impassive as though neither care nor anxiety had ever ruffled him. Mr. Brunton smoked on in silence, half vexed and half-amused by the position in which he found himself; and meanwhile his host had evidently as much forgotten his very existence as though his name had never been uttered in his presence.