"Ancram," he said, "I am afraid, from what Castalia tells me, that you are greatly dissatisfied with the position I have been able to procure for you."
"Oh, my lord, Castalia ought not to have said so! If she can content herself in it for a time, how can I venture to complain?"
"I am sorry to find," continued Lord Seely, "that your circumstances are more seriously embarrassed than I thought."
"Are they, my lord? I profess I don't know how to disembarrass them!"
"You are in debt——"
"I had the honour of avowing as much to your lordship when my marriage was first discussed; as you, doubtless, remember?"
"Yes; and you named a sum which I——"
"Which your lordship was kind enough to pay. Certainly."
"But it now appears that that sum did not cover the whole of your liabilities, Ancram. Castalia tells me that you have been annoyed by applications for money quite recently."
Algernon smiled, and put his head on one side, as if trying to recall a half-forgotten fact. "Well," said he at length, "upon my word I have forgotten the exact sum which I did name to your lordship, but I have no doubt it was correct at the time. The worst of it is, that my debts have this unfortunate peculiarity—they won't stay paid!"