"But I remember so well when twopence was a sum to be respected that to
this day I would rather put it by than spend it. All our ideas--like
orange-plants--spread out in proportion to the size of the box which
imprisons the roots. Then I had a sister." Vance paused a moment, as if
in pain, but went on with seeming carelessness, leaning over the window-
sill, and turning his face from his friend. "I had a sister older than
myself, handsome, gentle."

"I was so proud of her! Foolish girl! my love was not enough for her.
Foolish girl! she could not wait to see what I might live to do for her.
She married--oh! so genteelly!--a young man, very well born, who had
wooed her before my father died. He had the villany to remain constant
when she had not a farthing, and he was dependent on distant relations,
and his own domains in Parnassus. The wretch was a poet! So they
married. They spent their honeymoon genteelly, I dare say. His
relations cut him. Parnassus paid no rents. He went abroad. Such
heart-rending letters from her. They were destitute. How I worked! how
I raged! But how could I maintain her and her husband too, mere child
that I was? No matter. They are dead now, both; all dead for whose sake
I first ground colours and saved halfpence. And Frank Vance is a stingy,
selfish bachelor. Never revive this dull subject again, or I shall
borrow a crown from you and cut you dead. Waiter, ho!--the bill. I'll
just go round to the stables, and see the horse put to."

As the friends re-entered London, Vance said, "Set me down anywhere in
Piccadilly; I will walk home. You, I suppose, of course, are staying
with your mother in Gloucester Place?"

"No," said Lionel, rather embarrassed; "Colonel Morley, who acts for me
as if he were my guardian, took a lodging for me in Chesterfield Street,