WYLDER'S HAJVD.
53
"Aye, and better than Aladdin's, for you need not rub
it and bring up that confounded ugly genii; the slave of
your ring works unseen."
"So he does," laughed Wyldcf, in a state of elation,
"and he's not done working yet, I can tell you. When
the estates are joined in one, they'll be good eleven thou-
sand a year: and Larkin says, with smart management,
I shall have a rental of thirteen thousand before three
years! And that's only the beginning, by George! Sir
Henry Twisden can't hold his seat — he's all but broke
— as poor as Job, and the gentry hate him, and he lives
abroad. He has had a hint or two already, and he'll
never fight the next election. D'ye see — hey?"
And he laughed with cunning exultation.
"Miss Rachel will find I'm not quite such a lubber as
she fancies. But even then it is only begun. Come,
Charlie, you used to like a bet. What do you say? I'll
buy you that twenty-five guinea book of pictures —
what's its name ? — if you give me three hundred guineas
one month after I'm a peer of Parliment. Hey? There's
a sporting offer for you. Well! what do you say — eh?"
I laughed and declined, to his great elation, and just
then the gong sounded and we were away to our toilets.
While making my toilet for dinner, I amused myself by
conjecturing whether there could be any foundation in
fact for Mark's boast, that Miss Brandon liked him.
Women are so enigmatical — some in everything — all in
matters of the heart. Don't they often affect indifferenco,
and occasionally even aversion, where there is a different
sort of feeling?
As I went down I heard Miss Lake chatting with her
queen-like cousin near an open door on the lobby. Ra-
chel Lake was, indeed, a very constant guest at the Hall,
and the servants paid her much respect, which I look upon