He managed to happen to meet Lopez in the street, and introduced the subject in his own slap-dash, aery manner,--the result of which was, that he had gone rather deep into two or three American mines before the end of July.

But he had already made some money out of them, and, though he would find himself sometimes trembling before he had taken his daily allowance of port wine and brandy-and-water, still he was buoyant, and hopeful of living in a park, with a palace at the West End, and a seat in Parliament.

Knowing also, as he did, that his friend Lopez was intimate with the Duchess of Omnium, he had much immediate satisfaction in the intimacy which these relations created.

He was getting in the thin edge of the wedge, and would calculate as he went home to Ponder's End how long it must be before he could ask his friend to propose him at some West End club.

On one halcyon summer evening Lopez had dined with him at Ponder's End, had smiled on Mrs.
Parker, and played with the hopeful little Parkers.