All these changeful moods only served to make him drink more deeply. He filled bumpers and drank them daringly. Skeffington told the story of the threat to kick Willis,--not much in itself, but full of interest to the young officials who knew Willis as an institution, and could no more have imagined his personal chastisement than an insult to the royal arms. When Skeff, however, finished by saying that the Secretary of State himself rather approved of the measure, they began to feel that Tony Butler was that greatest of all created things, “a rising man.” For as the power of the unknown number is incommensurable, so the height to which a man's success may carry him can never be estimated. “It's deuced hard to get one of these messenger-ships,” said one of the guardsmen; “they say it's far easier to be named Secretary of Legation.” “Of course it is. Fifty fellows are able to ride in a coach for one that can read and write,” said May fair. “What do you mean by that?” cried Tony, his eyes flashing fire. “Just what I said,” replied the other, mildly,--“that as there is no born mammal so helpless as a real gentleman, it's the rarest thing to find an empty shell to suit him.” “And they're, well paid, too,” broke in the soldier. “Why, there's no fellow so well off. They have five pounds a day.” “No, they have not.” “They have.” “They have not.” “On duty--when they're on duty.” “No, nor off duty.” “Harris told me.” “Harris is a fool.” “He's my cousin,” said a sickly young fellow, who looked deadly pale, “and I'll not hear him called a liar.” “Nobody said liar. I said he was a fool.” “And so he is,” broke in Mayfair, “for he went and got married the other day to a girl without sixpence.” “Beaumont's daughter?” “Exactly. The 'Lively Kitty,' as we used to call her; a name she'll scarce go by in a year or two.” “I don't think,” said Tony, with a slow, deliberate utterance,--“I don't think that he has made me a suit--suit--suitable apology for what he said,--eh, Skeff?” “Be quiet, will you?” muttered the other. “Kitty had ten thousand pounds of her own.” “Not sixpence.” “I tell you she had.” “Grant it. What is ten thousand pounds?” lisped out a little pink-cheeked fellow, who had a hundred and eighty per annum at the Board of Trade. “If you are economical, you may get two years out of it.” “If I thought,” growled out Tony into Skeff's ear, “that he meant it for insolence, I'd punch his head, curls and all.” “Will you just be quiet?” said Skeff, again. “I 'd have married Kitty myself,” said pink cheeks, “if I thought she had ten thousand.” “And I 'd have gone on a visit to you,” said Mayfair, “and we 'd have played billiards, the French game, every evening.” “I never thought Harris was so weak as to go and marry,” said the youngest of the party, not fully one-and-twenty. “Every one hasn't your experience, Upton,” said May-fair. “Why do the fellows bear all this?” whispered Tony, again.