Dr. Arnold said, from his experience of a school, that the difference
between one man and another was not mere ability,--it was energy. There
is a great deal of truth in that saying.

Submitting these hints to the judgment and penetration of the sagacious,
I enter on the fresh division of this work, and see already Randal Leslie
gnawing his lips on the background. The German poet observes that the
Cow of Isis is to some the divine symbol of knowledge, to others but the
milch cow, only regarded for the pounds of butter she will yield. O
tendency of our age, to look on Isis as the milch cow! O prostitution of
the grandest desires to the basest uses! Gaze on the goddess, Randal
Leslie, and get ready thy churn and thy scales. Let us see what the
butter will fetch in the market.




CHAPTER II.

A new Reign has commenced. There has been a general election; the
unpopularity of the Administration has been apparent at the hustings.
Audley Egerton, hitherto returned by vast majorities, has barely escaped
defeat--thanks to a majority of five. The expenses of his election are
said to have been prodigious. "But who can stand against such wealth as
Egerton's,--no doubt backed, too, by the Treasury purse?" said the
defeated candidate. It is towards the close of October; London is
already full; parliament will meet in less than a fortnight.

In one of the principal apartments of that hotel in which foreigners may
discover what is meant by English comfort, and the price which foreigners