"I took the money and sent it to Willy. Alas! he returned it, writing word that 'Providence had been very kind to him; he had just been appointed to a capital place, with a magnificent salary.' The cat had fallen on its legs. He bade me comfort Haughton with that news. The money went back into Darrell's pocket, and perhaps wandered thence to Charles Haughton's creditors. Now for the appointment. At the country- house to which Willy had returned destitute, he had met a stranger (no relation), who said to him: 'You live with these people--shoot their game --break in their horses--see to their farms--and they give you nothing! You are no longer very young--you should lay by your little income, and add to it. Live with me and I will give you L300 a-year. I am parting with my steward--take his place, but be my friend.' William Losely of course closed with the proposition. This gentleman, whose name was Gunston, I had known slightly in former times--(people say I know everybody)--a soured, bilious, melancholy, indolent, misanthropical old bachelor. With a splendid place universally admired, and a large estate universally envied, he lived much alone, ruminating on the bitterness of life and the nothingness of worldly blessings. Meeing Willy at the country-house to which, by some predestined relaxation of misanthropy, he had been decoyed-for the first time for years Mr. Gunston was heard to laugh. He said to himself, 'Here is a man who actually amuses me.' William Losely contrived to give the misanthrope a new zest of existence; and when he found that business could be made pleasant, the rich man conceived an interest in his own house, gardens, property. For the sake of William's merry companionship, he would even ride over his farms, and actually carried a gun. Meanwhile, the property, I am told, was really well managed. Ah! that fellow Willy was a born genius, and could have managed everybody's affairs except his own. I heard of all this with pleasure--(people say I hear everything)--when one day a sporting man seizes me by the button at Tattersall's--'Do you know the news? Will Losely is in prison on a charge; of robbing his employer.'" "Robbing! incredible!" exclaimed Lionel. "My dear Lionel, it was after hearing that news that I established as invariable my grand maxim, /Nil admirari/--never to be astonished at anything!" "But of course he was innocent?"