“Very few as wealthy, I should say, Dunn,--very few, indeed. Let me only know your wishes. I feel certain how they will be treated.” “I am aware,” said Dunn, with some energy, “that you incur the risk of some attack in anything you would do for me. I am necessarily in scant favor with a large party here. They would _assail you_, they would _vilify me_; but that would pass over. A few weeks--a few months at furthest--” “To be sure,--perfectly correct It would be mere momentary clamor. Sir Davenport Dunn, Baronet, would survive--” “I beg pardon,” said Dunn, in a voice tremulous with emotion. “I don't think I heard you aright; I trust, at least, I did not.” The Secretary looked quickly in his face, and saw it pale, the lips slightly quivering, and the brow contracted. “I was saying,” said he, in a voice broken and uncertain, “that I 'm sure the Premier would not refuse to recommend you to her Majesty for a baronetcy.” “May I make so bold as to ask if you have already held any conversation with the Minister on this subject?” “None, whatever. I assure you, most solemnly, that I have no instructions on the subject, nor have I ever had any conversation with him on the matter.” “Then let me beg you to forget what has just passed between us. It is, after all, mere chit-chat. That's a Susterman's, that portrait you are looking at,” said he, eager to change the topic. “It is said to be a likeness of Bianca Capello.” “A very charming picture, indeed; purchased, I suppose, in your last visit abroad.” “Yes; I bought it at Verona. Its companion, yonder, was a present from the Archduke Stephen, in recognition, as he was gracious enough to call it, of some counsels I had given the Government engineers about drainage in Hungary. Despotic governments, as we like to term them, have this merit, at least,--they confer acts of munificent generosity.” The Secretary muttered an assent, and looked confused. “I reaped a perfect harvest of crosses and decorations,” continued Dunn, “during my tour. I have got cordons from countries I should be puzzled to point out on the map, and am a noble in almost every land of Europe but my own.” “Ours is the solitary one where the distinction is not a mere title,” said the other, “and, consequently, there are graver considerations about conferring it than if it were a mere act of courtesy.” “Where power is already acquired there is often good policy in legitimatizing it,” said Dunn, gravely. “They say that even the Church of Rome knows how to affiliate a heresy.--Well, Clowes, what is it?” asked he of the butler, who stood awaiting a favorable moment to address him. He now drew nigh, and whispered some words in his ear. “But you said I was engaged--that I had company with me?” said Dunn, in reply. “Yes, sir, but she persisted in saying that if I brought up her name you would certainly see her, were it but for a moment This is her card.”