"No, you'll not come Saint Denis nor any other martyr over us, my dear boy; we know very well how you stand in that quarter."
"It's pleasant to have one's domestic relations so happily arranged by such very competent persons. I'm much obliged to all the world for the parental interest it takes in my private concerns."
"And it also strikes some people that a perfectly safe seat in the House of Commons is not to be had for nothing by every fellow who wishes it."
"But suppose I don't wish it."
"Oh! we may suppose anything."
Tom Sedley laughed as he said this, and Cleve looked at him sharply, but saw no uncomfortable meaning in his face.
"There is no good in talking of what one has not tried," said he. "If you had to go down to that tiresome House of Commons every time it sits; and had an uncle like mine to take you to task every time you missed a division—you'd soon be as tired of it as I am."
"I see, my dear fellow, you are bowed down under a load of good luck." They were at the door of Tom Sedley's lodgings by this time, and opening it, he continued, "I've something in my room to show you; just run up with me for a minute, and you'll say I'm a conjuror."
Cleve, not to be got into good spirits that evening, followed him upstairs, thinking of something else.
"I've got a key to your melancholy, Cleve," said he, leading the way into his drawing-room. "Look there," and he pointed to a clever copy in crayons of the famous Beatrice Cenci, which he had hung over his chimney-piece.