"I know not, Randal Leslie, whether you thought me needlessly cautious,
or wantonly unkind, when I told you never to expect from me more than
such advance to your career as my then position could effect,--never to
expect from my liberality in life, nor from my testament in death, an
addition to your private fortunes. I see by your gesture what would be
your reply, and I thank you for it. I now tell you, as yet in
confidence, though before long it can be no secret to the world, that my
pecuniary affairs have been so neglected by me in my devotion to those of
the State, that I am somewhat like the man who portioned out his capital
at so much a day, calculating to live just long enough to make it last.
Unfortunately he lived too long." Audley smiled--but the smile was cold
as a sunbeam upon ice-and went on with the same firm, unfaltering
accents. "The prospects that face me I am prepared for; they do not take
me by surprise. I knew long since how this would end, if I survived the
loss of office. I knew it before you came to me, and therefore I spoke
to you as I did, judging it manful and right to guard you against hopes
which you might otherwise have naturally entertained. On this head, I
need say no more. It may excite your surprise, possibly your blame, that
I, esteemed methodical and practical enough in the affairs of the State,
should be so imprudent as to my own."

"Oh, sir! you owe no account to me."

"To you, at least, as much as to any one. I am a solitary man; my few
relations need nothing from me. I had a right do spend what I possessed
as I pleased; and if I have spent it recklessly as regards myself, I have
not spent it ill in its effect on others. It has been my object for many
years to have no Private Life,--to dispense with its sorrows, joys,
affections; and as to its duties, they did not exist for me. I have