interest--almost of intelligence--when he was told that birds were said to
be plentiful. As the servants left the room, and Lord Erpingham took his
first glass of claret, the conversation fell upon Percy Godolphin.

"He has been staying with us a whole fortnight," said Lady Erpingham;
"and, by the by, he said he had met you in Italy, and mentioned your name
as it deserved."

"Indeed! And did he really condescend to praise me?" said Lord
Erpingham, with eagerness; for there was that about Godolphin, and his
reputation for fastidiousness, which gave a rarity and a value to his
praise, at least to lordly ears. "Ah! he's a queer fellow; he led a very
singular life in Italy."

"So I have always heard," said Lady Erpingham. "But of what description?
was he very wild?"

"No, not exactly: there was a good deal of mystery about him: he saw very
few English, and those were chiefly men who played high. He was said to
have a great deal of learning and so forth."

"Oh! then he was surrounded, I suppose, by those medalists and
picture-sellers, and other impostors, who live upon such of our countrymen
as think themselves blessed with a taste or afflicted with a genius," said
Lady Erpingham; who, having lived with the wits and orators of the time,
had caught mechanically their way of rounding a period.

"Far from it!" returned the earl. "Godolphin is much too deep a fellow
for that; he's not easily taken in, I assure you. I confess I don't like
him the worse for that," added the close noble. "But he lived with the