'See all that I have done for this man,' said he to himself; 'see how I have warmed him in my bosom, how I have lifted him to fortune and renown, how I have heaped benefits on his head! If gratitude in this world be possible, that man should be grateful to me; if one man can ever have another's interest at heart, that man should have a heartfelt anxiety as to my interest.

And yet how is it?
I have placed him in the chair next to my own, and now he is desirous of sitting above me!' 'Twas thus Sir Gregory communed with himself.

But Alaric's soliloquy was very different.

A listener who could have overheard both would hardly have thought that the same question was being discussed by the two.

'I have got so high,' said Alaric, 'by my own labour, by my own skill and tact; and why should I stop here?
I have left my earliest colleagues far behind me; have distanced those who were my competitors in the walk of life; why should I not still go on and distance others also?
why stop when I am only second or third?
It is very natural that Sir Gregory should wish to keep me out of Parliament; I cannot in the least blame him; let us all fight as best each may for himself.