'It is quite the Rake's Progress,' he said, pausing before one of

Hogarth's prints which hung on the wall. 'Perhaps I have been a little

less of a fool and a little more of a rogue than my prototype; but the

end is the same. D----n me, I am sorry for the servants, doctor--though

I dare swear that they have robbed me right and left. It is a pity that

clumsy fool, Dunborough, did not get home when he had the chance the

other day.' The doctor took snuff, put up his box, filled his glass and emptied it

before he spoke. Then, 'No, no, Sir George, it has not come to that

yet,' he said heartily. 'There is only one thing for it now. They must

do something for you.' And he also rose to his feet, and stood with his

back to the fire, looking at his companion.

'Who?' Soane asked, though he knew very well what the other meant.

'The Government,' said the doctor. 'The mission to Turin is likely to be

vacant by-and-by. Or, if that be too much to ask, a consulship, say at

Genoa or Leghorn, might be found, and serve for a stepping-stone to

Florence. Sir Horace has done well there, and you--' 'Might toady a Grand-duke and bear-lead sucking peers--as well as

another!' Soane answered with a gesture of disgust. 'Ugh, one might as

well be Thomasson and ruin boys. No, doctor, that will not do. I had

sooner hang myself at once, as poor Fanny Braddock did at Bath, or put a

pistol to my head like Bland!' 'God forbid!' said the doctor solemnly.

Sir George shrugged his shoulders, but little by little his face lost

its hardness. 'Yes, God forbid,' he said gently. 'But it is odd. There

is poor Tavistock with a pretty wife and two children, and another

coming; and Woburn and thirty thousand a year to inherit, broke his neck

last week with the hounds; and I, who have nothing to inherit, why

nothing hurts me!' Dr. Addington disregarded his words.

'They must do something for you at home then,' he said, firmly set on

his benevolent designs. 'In the Mint or the Customs. There should not be

the least difficulty about it. You must speak to his lordship, and it is

not to be supposed that he will refuse.' Sir George grunted, and might have expressed his doubts, but at that

moment the sound of voices raised in altercation penetrated the room

from the passage. A second later, while the two stood listening,

arrested by the noise, the door was thrown open with such violence that

the candles flickered in the draught. Two persons appeared on the

threshold, the one striving to make his way in, the other to resist

the invasion.




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