The old bucks and habitues, who ordinarily stand gaping and grinning

out of the great front window of the Club, had not arrived at their

posts as yet--the newspaper-room was almost empty. One man was present

whom Rawdon did not know; another to whom he owed a little score for

whist, and whom, in consequence, he did not care to meet; a third was

reading the Royalist (a periodical famous for its scandal and its

attachment to Church and King) Sunday paper at the table, and looking

up at Crawley with some interest, said, "Crawley, I congratulate you."

"What do you mean?" said the Colonel.

"It's in the Observer and the Royalist too," said Mr. Smith.

"What?" Rawdon cried, turning very red. He thought that the affair

with Lord Steyne was already in the public prints. Smith looked up

wondering and smiling at the agitation which the Colonel exhibited as

he took up the paper and, trembling, began to read.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown (the gentleman with whom Rawdon had the

outstanding whist account) had been talking about the Colonel just

before he came in.

"It is come just in the nick of time," said Smith. "I suppose Crawley

had not a shilling in the world."

"It's a wind that blows everybody good," Mr. Brown said. "He can't go

away without paying me a pony he owes me."

"What's the salary?" asked Smith.

"Two or three thousand," answered the other. "But the climate's so

infernal, they don't enjoy it long. Liverseege died after eighteen

months of it, and the man before went off in six weeks, I hear."

"Some people say his brother is a very clever man. I always found him

a d------ bore," Smith ejaculated. "He must have good interest, though.

He must have got the Colonel the place."

"He!" said Brown, with a sneer. "Pooh. It was Lord Steyne got it.

"How do you mean?"

"A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband," answered the other

enigmatically, and went to read his papers.

Rawdon, for his part, read in the Royalist the following astonishing

paragraph: GOVERNORSHIP OF COVENTRY ISLAND.--H.M.S. Yellowjack, Commander

Jaunders, has brought letters and papers from Coventry Island. H. E.

Sir Thomas Liverseege had fallen a victim to the prevailing fever at

Swampton. His loss is deeply felt in the flourishing colony. We hear

that the Governorship has been offered to Colonel Rawdon Crawley, C.B.,

a distinguished Waterloo officer. We need not only men of acknowledged

bravery, but men of administrative talents to superintend the affairs

of our colonies, and we have no doubt that the gentleman selected by

the Colonial Office to fill the lamented vacancy which has occurred at

Coventry Island is admirably calculated for the post which he is about

to occupy.




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