The noble lord bowed a little affably, although he might have questioned Mr. Dingwell's right to pay him compliments in his own house; but Mr. Dingwell's fiddlestick had touched the right string, and the noble instrument made music accordingly. Mr. Dingwell, in the dark, looked very much amused. "I can hardly style myself _that_, Mr. Dingwell." "I speak of _business_, Lord Verney; and I adopt the language of the world in saying the cleverest man in England." "I'm happy to say my physician allows me to listen to reading, and to talk a little, and there can be no objection to a little business either," said Lord Verney, passing by the compliment this time, but, on the whole, good-humouredly disposed toward Mr. Dingwell. "I've two or three things to mention, Lord Verney; and the first is money." Lord Verney coughed drily. He was suddenly recalled to a consciousness of Mr. Dingwell's character. "Money, my lord. The name makes you cough, as smoke does a man with an asthma. I've found it all my life as hard to keep, as you do to part with. If I had but possessed Lord Verney's instincts and abilities, I should have been at this moment one of the wealthiest men in England." Mr. Dingwell rose as he said this, and bowed towards Lord Verney. "I said I should name it first; but as your lordship coughs, we had, perhaps, best discuss it last. Or, indeed, if it makes your lordship cough very much, perhaps we had better postpone it, or leave it entirely to your lordship's discretion--as I wouldn't for the world send this little attack into your chest." Lord Verney thought Mr. Dingwell less unreasonable, but also more flighty, than he had supposed. "You are quite at liberty, sir, to treat your subjects in what order you please. I wish you to understand that I have no objection to hear you; and--and you may proceed." "The next is a question on which I presume we shall find ourselves in perfect accord. I had the honour, as you are very well aware, of an intimate acquaintance with your late brother, the Honourable Arthur Verney, and beyond measure I admired his talents, which were second in brilliancy only to your own. I admired even his _principles_--but I see they make you cough also. They were, it is true, mephitic, sulphurous, such as might well take your breath, or that of any other moral man, quite away; but they had what I call the Verney stamp upon them; they were perfectly consistent, and quite harmonious. His, my lord, was the intense and unflinching rascality, if you permit me the phrase, of a man of genius, and I honoured it. Now, my lord, his adventures were curious, as you are aware, and I have them at my fingers' ends--his crimes, his escape, and, above all, his life in Constantinople--ha, ha, ha! It would make your hair stand on end. And to think he should have been _your brother_! Upon my _soul_! Though, as I said, the genius--the _genius_, Lord Verney--the inspiration was there. In _that_ he _was_ your brother."