I am well-nigh resolved to tempt the sea no further, but sit me down in quiet on the shore." "And gather cockle-shells, with Dan Cupid to aid you," said Varney.
"How mean you by that, Varney ?" said the Earl somewhat hastily.
"Nay, my lord," said Varney, "be not angry with me.

If your lordship is happy in a lady so rarely lovely that, in order to enjoy her company with somewhat more freedom, you are willing to part with all you have hitherto lived for, some of your poor servants may be sufferers; but your bounty hath placed me so high, that I shall ever have enough to maintain a poor gentleman in the rank befitting the high office he has held in your lordship's family." "Yet you seem discontented when I propose throwing up a dangerous game, which may end in the ruin of both of us." "I, my lord ?" said Varney; "surely I have no cause to regret your lordship's retreat! It will not be Richard Varney who will incur the displeasure of majesty, and the ridicule of the court, when the stateliest fabric that ever was founded upon a prince's favour melts away like a morning frost-work.

I would only have you yourself to be assured, my lord, ere you take a step which cannot be retracted, that you consult your fame and happiness in the course you propose." "Speak on, then, Varney," said the Earl; "I tell thee I have determined nothing, and will weigh all considerations on either side." "Well, then, my lord," replied Varney, "we will suppose the step taken, the frown frowned, the laugh laughed, and the moan moaned.

You have retired, we will say, to some one of your most distant castles, so far from court that you hear neither the sorrow of your friends nor the glee of your enemies, We will suppose, too, that your successful rival will be satisfied (a thing greatly to be doubted) with abridging and cutting away the branches of the great tree which so long kept the sun from him, and that he does not insist upon tearing you up by the roots.

Well; the late prime favourite of England, who wielded her general's staff and controlled her parliaments, is now a rural baron, hunting, hawking, drinking fat ale with country esquires, and mustering his men at the command of the high sheriff--" "Varney, forbear!" said the Earl.
"Nay, my lord, you must give me leave to conclude my picture .-- Sussex governs England--the Queen's health fails--the succession is to be settled--a road is opened to ambition more splendid than ambition ever dreamed of.