CHAPTER XV.
The historian records the attachment to public business which distinguishes the British legislator .-- Touching instance of the regret which ever in patriotic bosoms attends the neglect of a public duty.
From the dusty height of a rumble-tumble affixed to Lady Selina Vipont's barouche, and by the animated side of Sir Gregory Stollhead, Vance caught sight of Lionel and Sophy at a corner of the spacious green near the Palace.

He sighed; he envied them.

He thought of the boat, the water, the honeysuckle arbour at the little inn,--pleasures he had denied himself,--pleasures all in his own way.

They seemed still more alluring by contrast with the prospect before him; formal dinner at the Star and Garter, with titled Prymmes, Slowes, and Frosts, a couple of guineas a head, including light wines, which he did not drink, and the expense of a chaise back by himself.

But such are life and its social duties,--such, above all, ambition and a career.