It was a gusty¹, wild, and cloudy morning at Faldon some days later, and Hurstmanceaux sat in his library reading a communication which he had received from the head of the Government. The epistle, which was written by the premier² himself, offered him the governorship of a very important colony. The letter was extremely complimentary³, and there was no possible reason to doubt its sincerity⁴. It urged upon him the sacrifice of his independence to the welfare of his country, and hinted that as years passed on it became time to abandon certain eccentricities⁵ of opinion and habits of isolation⁶. Hurstmanceaux read it with the attention which the position of its writer demanded; but he did not waste many minutes in its consideration. It was not the first time that such offers had been pressed on him. The independence of his character was so well known, and his principles so much respected by all men, that his accession to the governing ranks would have been an increase of strength to those who were in office. But they had never been able to tempt⁷ him to forsake⁸ private for public life. He now wrote a very courteous⁹ but most decided¹⁰ refusal, expressing his sense of the compliment paid to him, sealed it with his signet ring, and sat still awhile at his writing-table thinking.

 

“I have never yet been in the scramble¹¹ for the loaves and fishes,” he said to himself, “and I shall not begin now. He will find men enough and to spare who have outrun the

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