gay dresses must be exchanged for a widow s weeds she was furious with a fate that had played such a trick upon her even her tears were more those of anger than of sorrow though in her fashion she mourned him truly dick came to console her he came very soon already he had been at the war office and mastered the points of s tale which as though unwillingly he told to leaving her to put upon it what construction she chose it is nonsense she said angrily for in her heart she did not believe it at all poor would never have got into any silly mess with a savage of course it is nonsense he answered taking her cue but it is not a question of morality it s a question of wisdom by mixing himself up with these women he brought about the murder of the whole lot and the utter failure of his mission in a way it is as well for him that he is gone poor dear fellow for he had completely done for himself well it doesn t matter now no she answered heavily it doesn t matter now yet when dick as a relative although of the other political party was consulted by the secretary of state and lord before the former gave those answers in the house he talked somewhat differently the tone indeed of a man of the world of the facts he said he knew little more than they did but of course poor had his weaknesses like other men and he smiled as though at amusing recollections and the desert was a lonely place and this described mai of tbe spirit one of the women as young and beautiful who could say and what did it matter and so forth but the secretary of state an austere man who did not like to see his schemes wrecked and himself attacked on account of such weaknesses thought that it mattered a great deal hence the tone of his answers in the house for it never occurred to him or indeed to lord that a relation would have said as much as dick did unless he was very sure of his ground in fact they were certain that he was putting forward the best version of the truth and of s character that was possible under the circumstances who would wish they reflected to throw a darker shade upon the reputation of a dead man than he was absolutely forced to do by the pressure of sure and certain knowledge as for mrs when she was assured that this dreadful news was and that her only son was indeed dead she said merely in the ancient words the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord and stumbled to the bed whence she never rose again here a second stroke fell upon her but still for many weeks she lived on in a half conscious state it was during this time that left the house saying that her room was wanted by the nurses and went into comfortable rooms of her own in brook street the fact was of course that she could no longer endure this atmosphere of sickness it wag to her nature the sound of her poor mother in breathing as she passed her door tore her nerves the shadow of advancing death oppressed her spirits which already were low enough so she went and set up a manage of her own as a young widow had a right to do as for mrs by degrees she sank into complete and so died making no sign a week before reached england she was buried in by the side of the husband who had treated her so ill in life it was a little before this that an event occurred which indirectly lessened s material disappointment and consoled lord for the death of that for his own reasons had grieved and disappointed him much to the astonishment of all the world on one fine autumn morning presented him with a singularly healthy son this one should do exclaimed the doctor in triumph while lord kissed it fondly but when they had left the room together his wife bade the nurse show her the child and after she too had kissed it said sadly poor little lamb i fear you will have no more luck than the rest how should you with such a father she added in german as for dick with the exception of the birth of this to him child which now stood between him and the wealth his fortunes seemed to wax as those of his rival and vanished he was a clever man with an agreeable manner and a certain gift of shallow but rather amusing speech the kind of speech that and even for the moment but behind which there is neither thought nor power these graces soon made him acceptable to that dreary and middle class institution the house of where entertainment of any sort is so rare and precious a thing thus it happened that before long he came to be a rising man one with a future moreover on one or two occasions when he addressed the house upon some matter he was fortunate enough to impress the public with the idea that he possessed a business ability that in fact was no part of his mental which impression was strengthened by a rather clever article mostly extracted from works of reference however that he published in one of the leading the result was that soon dick found himself a of several sound and one or two but for the while prosperous companies which in the le of tbe spirit to say nothing of the salary that he received from lord who also paid for his shares furnished him with a clear of over � i oo a year thus was 