"Don't use slang--it is bad in tone," replied his uncle; "but I cannot make your brother out--I hope he is not deceiving us all. Gad, if I thought so--if that Montreal story should prove true----" the peer paused, and his keen blue eyes flashed with anger at the vague thoughts that occurred to him. "Oh, do not fear, my lord," said Downie Trevelyan, in a suave and soothing manner; "though sham diamonds often do duty for real ones." "What do you mean?" asked his uncle, haughtily. Downie only smiled, and bent over his glass of Burgundy again. "_Neb na gare y gwayn call restona,_" said Lord Lamorna, significantly; "I hate proverbs: but this is a good old Cornish one; 'he that heeds not gain, must expect _loss_.' When do you expect your oldest boy home from India?" "He may arrive next week, perhaps, my lord, and he will at once dutifully hasten to present himself to you." "He must be well up among the Lieutenants of the Hussars now?" "Yet he means to exchange into the Infantry." "Why?" "It is a matter of expedience and expense, my lord; even with forage, batta, tentage, and so forth, he finds his regiment a very extravagant one." "I shall give him a cheque on Coutts and Co., for I must not forget that you did me the honour to name him after me." "But you did us the greater honour in being his sponsor--and in bestowing upon him a gold sponsorial mug." "With the _Koithgath_ of the Trevelyans for a handle, and another perched on the lid; well, well--he may be my successor here--who knows, who knows," mumbled the old man, as he prepared to take his-after dinner nap, by spreading a cambric handkerchief over his face, and Downie glided noiselessly away to the library, with a strange and unfathomable smile on his colourless face, and he muttered,-- "I too may say--'the time will come!'" CHAPTER II. RHOSCADZHEL. On the smooth lawn his brother was walking to and fro, with a cigar between his firm white teeth, with his heart a prey to bitter and exciting thoughts; and though Richard Trevelyan is not, as we have said, the hero of these pages, to the lawn we shall accompany him.