After dinner they adjourned to the smoking-room, which they found almost empty; and then, in a few eager sentences, Bradley explained his position and solicited his friend’s advice. For that advice was well worth having, Cholmondeley being not only a clever thinker but a shrewd man of the world.

CHAPTER IV.—WORLDLY COUNSEL.

A pebble, not a pearl!—worn smooth and round

With lying in the currents of the world

Where they run swiftliest—polished if you please,

As such things may and must be, yet indeed

No shining agate and no precious stone;

Nay, pebble, merely pebble, one of many