Ravenshoe. By Henry Kingsley.

A DINNER PARTY AMONG SOME OLD FRIENDS. 241
a strange price people are giving for cobs! I saw one sold today at Tattersall's for ninety guineas."
William answered, " Good cobs are very hard to get, Lord
Hainault. I could get you ten good horses over fifteen, for one
good cob."
Lord Saltire said, "iMy cob is the best I ever had; and a
sweet-tempered creature. Our dear boy broke it for me at
Ravenshoe."
" Dear Charles," said Lady Ascot. "What a splendid rider he
was! Dear boy! He got Ascot to write him a certificate about
that sort of thing before he went away. Ah, dear!"
"I never thought," said Lord Saltire, quietly, "that I ever
should have cared half as much for anybody as I do for that lad.
Do you remember, Mainwaring," he continued, speaking still
lower, while they all sat hushed, "the first night I ever saw him,
when he marked for you and me at billiards, at Ranford? I
don't know why, but I loved that boy from the first moment I
saw him. Both there and ever afterwards, he reminded me so
strongly of Barkham. He had just the same gentle, winning
way with him that Barkham had. Barkham was a little taller,
though, I fancy," he went on, looking straight at Lady Ascot, and
taking snuff. "Don't you think so,. Maria?""
No one spoke for a moment.
Lord Barkham had been Lord Saltire's only son. He had
been killed in a duel at nineteen, as I have mentioned before.
Lord Saltire very rarely spoke of him, and, when he did, generally in a cynical manner. But General Mainwaring and Lady
Ascot knew that the memory of that poor boy was as fresh in
the true old heart after forty years, as it was on the morning
when he came out from his dressing-room, and met them carrying his corpse up stairs.
" He was a good fellow," said Lord Hainault, alluding to
Charles. " He was a very good fellow."
" This great disappointment which I have had about him," said
Lord Saltire, in his old dry tone, " is a just judgment on me for
doing a good-natured and virtuous action many years ago. When
his poor father Densil was in prison, I went to see him, and
reconciled him with his family. Poor Densil was so grateful for
this act of folly on my part, that I grew personally attached to
him; and hence all this misery. Disinterested actions are great
mistakes, Maria, depend upon it."
When the ladies were gone up-stairs, William found Lord
Saltire beside him. He talked to him a little time, and then
finished by saying, --
"You are modest and gentlemanly, and the love you bear for
your foster-brother is very pleasing to me, indeed. I am going
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