THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. amongst them, I must needs risk the last five pieces with that shark among the minnows!" "Granted," said Dame Ursula. "All this I know; and I own, that as Lord Glenvarloch was the last you played with, you have a right to charge your ruin on his head. Moreover, I admit, as already said, that Margaret has made him your rival. Yet surely, now he is in danger to lose his hand, it is not a time to remember all this?" "By my faith, but it is, though," said the young citizen. Lose his hand, indeed? They may take his head, for what I care. Head and hand have made me a miserable wretch!" "Now, were it not better, my prince of flat-caps," said Dame Ursula, "that matters were squared between you; and that, through means of the same Scottish lord, who has, as you say, deprived you of your money and your mistress, you should in a short time recover both?" before I must set up for gentleman, and go among Ay, ay," replied Vin, "when I am got into my "And how can your wisdom come to that conclusion, dame?" said the apprentice. "My money, indeed, I can conceive-that is, if I comply with your proposal; but-my, pretty Margaret!-how serving this lord, whom she has set her nonsensical head upon, can do me good with her, is far beyond my conception." "That is because, in simple phrase," said Dame Ursula, "thou knowest no more of a woman's heart than doth a Norfolk gosling. Look you, man. Were I to report to Mistress Marget that the young lord has miscarried through thy lack of courtesy in refusing to help him, why, then, thou wert odious to her for ever. She will loathe thee as she will loathe the very cook who is to strike off Glenvarloch's hand with his cleaver-and then she will be yet more fixed in her affections towards this lord. London will hear of nothing but him-speak of nothing but him-think of nothing but him, for three weeks at least, and all that outcry will serve to keep him uppermost in her mind; for nothing pleases a girl so much as to bear relation to any one who is the talk "I will suppose no such thing," said Jenkin hastily; of the whole world around her. Then, if he suffer this sentence of the law, it is a chance if she ever forgets him. I saw that handsome, proper young gen- "I know that you, dame, have no gold to spare, and tleman, Babington, suffer in the Queen's time my-maybe would not spare it if you had-so that cock "Well, thou suspicious animal, and what if it were?" self, and though I was then but a girl, he was in my will not crow. It must be from Margaret herself." head for a year after he was hanged. But, above all, pardoned or punished, Glenvarloch will probably re- said Ursula. main in London, and his presence will keep up the silly girl's nonsensical fancy about him. Whereas, if he escapes". "Only this," replied Jenkin," that I will presently ready money; for sooner than connive at her getting to her, and learn if she has come fairly by so much It is enough what I have done myself, no need to enit by any indirection, I would hang myself at once. "You are mad to think of it," said Dame Suddlegage poor Margaret in such villany-I'll to her, and tell her of the danger-I will, by Heaven!" chop, considerably alarmed-"hear me but a moment. but sure I am that she obtained it at her godfather's." I know not precisely from whom she got the money; "Why, Master George Heriot is not returned from Ay, ay, I knew you would hear reason at last," "No," replied Ursula, "but dame Judith is at home said the wily dame;" and then, when this same lord France," said Jenkin. is off and away for once and for ever, who, I pray you, is to be pretty pet's confidential person, and who-and the strange lady, whom they call Master Heriis to fill up the void in her affections?-why, who but thou, thou pearl of 'prentices! And then you will have overcome your own inclinations to comply with hers, and every woman is sensible of that-and you will have run some risk, too, in carrying her desires into effect-and what is it that woman likes better than bravery, and devotion to her will? Then you have her secret, and she must treat you with favour and observance, and repose confidence in you, and hold private intercourse with you, till she weeps with one eye for the absent lover whom she is never to see again, and blinks with the other blithely upon him who is in presence; and then if you know not how to improve the relation in which you stand with her, you are not the brisk lively lad that all the world takes you for-Said I well?" You have spoken like an empress, most mighty Ursula," said Jenkin Vincent; "and your will shall be obeyed." You know Alsatia well?" continued his tutoress. **Well enough, well enough," replied he, with a "Ah, Jin Vin," said the dame, reducing her voice almost to a whisper, "we should not want gold at "They may read it that list," said Jenkin, "I'll will neither, could we but read the riddle of that lady!" never pry into what concerns me not-Master George Heriot is a worthy and brave citizen, and an honour to London, and has a right to manage his own household as he likes best.-There was once a talk of rabcause they said he kept a nunnery in his house, lik bling him the fifth of November before the last, beold Lady Foljambe; but Master George is well loved of us together, as should have rabbled the rabble, ad among the 'prentices, and we got so many brisk brys they had but the heart to rise." "Well, let that pass," said Ursula; "and no tell me how you will manage to be absent from shop a day or two, for you must think that this matter will not be ended sooner." "Why, as to that, I can say nothing," said Jenkin, "I have always served duly and truly; I have no heart to play truant, and cheat my master of his time as well as his money." 64 Nay, but the point is to get back his money for him," said Ursula, "which he is not likely to see on other conditions. Could you not ask leave to go down to your uncle in Essex for two or three days? He may be ill, you know." "Why, if I must, I must," said Jenkin, with a heavy sigh; "but I will not be lightly caught treading these dark and crooked paths again." "Hush thee, then," said the dame, "and get leave for this very evening; and come back hither, and I will introduce you to another implement, who must be employed in the matter.-Stay, stay!-the lad is mazed--you would not go into your master's shop in that guise, surely? Your trunk is in the matted chamber with your 'prentice things-go and put them on as fast as you can." "I think I am bewitched," said Jenkin, giving a glance towards his dress, "or that these fool's trappings have made as great an ass of me as of many I have seen wear them; but let me once be rid of the harness, and if you catch me putting it on again, I will give you leave to sell me to a gipsy, to carry pots, pans, and beggar's bantlings, all the rest of my life." So saying, he retired to change his apparel. CHAPTER XXII. Chance will not do the work-Chance sends the breeze; The very wind that wafts us towards the port Blow it or rough or smooth.-Old Play. WE left Nigel, whose fortunes we are bound to trace by the engagement contracted in our title-page, sad and solitary in the mansion of Trapbois the usurer, having just received a letter instead of a visit from his friend the Templar, stating reasons why he could not at that time come to see him in Alsatia. So that it appeared his intercourse with the better and more respectable class of society, was, for the present, entirely cut off. This was a melancholy, and, to a proud mind like that of Nigel, a degrading reflection. He went to the window of his apartment, and found the street enveloped in one of those thick, dingy, yellow-coloured fogs, which often invest the lower part of London and Westminster. Amid the darkness, dense and palpable, were seen to wander like phantoms a reveller or two, whom the morning had surprised where the evening left them: and who now, with tottering steps, and by an instinct which intoxication could not wholly overcome, were groping the way to their own homes, to convert day into night, for the purpose of sleeping off the debauch which had turned night into day. Although it was broad day in the other parts of the city, it was scarce dawn yet in Alsatia; and none of the sounds of industry or occupation were there heard, which had long before aroused the slumberers in every other quarter. The prospect was too tiresome and disagreeable to detain Lord Glenvarloch at his station, so, turning from the window, he examined with more interest the furniture and appearance of the apartment which he tenanted. Much of it had been in its time rich and curious there was a huge four-post bed, with as much carved oak about it as would have made the head of a manof-war, and tapestry hangings ample enough to have been her sails. There was a huge mirror with a massy frame of gilt brass-work, which was of Venetian manufacture, and must have been worth a considerable sum before it received the tremendous crack, which, traversing it from one corner to the other, bore the same proportion to the surface that the Nile bears to the map of Egypt. The chairs were of different forms and shapes, some had been carved, some gilded, some covered with damasked leather, some with embroidered work, but all were damaged and worm-eaten. There was a picture of Susanna and the Elders over the chimney-piece, which might have been accounted a choice piece, had not the rats made free with the chaste fair one's nose, and with the beard of one of her reverend admirers. In a word, all that Lord Glenvarloch saw, seemed to have been articles carried off by appraisement or distress, or bought as pennyworths at some obscure broker's, and huddled together in the apartment, as in a sale-room, without regard to taste or congruity. The place appeared to Nigel to resemble the houses near the sea-coast, which are too often furnished with the spoils of wrecked vessels, as this was probably fitted up with the relics of ruined profligates." My own skiff is among the breakers," thought Lord Glenvarloch, "though my wreck will add little to the profits of the spoiler." He was chiefly interested in the state of the grate, a huge assemblage of rusted iron bars which stood in the chimney, unequally supported by three brazen feet, moulded into the form of lion's claws, while the fourth, which had been bent by an accident, seemed proudly uplifted as if to paw the ground; or as if the whole article had nourished the ambitious purpose of pacing forth into the middle of the apartment, and had one foot ready raised for the journey. A smile passed over Nigel's face as this fantastic idea presented itself to his fancy."I must stop its march, however," he thought; "for this morning is chill and raw enough to demand some fire." He called accordingly from the top of a large staircase, with a heavy oaken balustrade, which gave access to his own and other apartments, for the house was old and of considerable size; but, receiving no answer to his repeated summons, he was compelled to go in search of some one who might accommodate him with what he wanted. Nigel had, according to the fashion of the old world in Scotland, received an education which might, in most particulars, be termed simple, hardy, and unostentatious; but he had, nevertheless, been accustomed to much personal deference, and to the constant attendance and ministry of one or more domestics. This was the universal custom in Scotland, where wages were next to nothing, and where, indeed, a man of title or influence might have as many attendants as he pleased, for the mere expense of food, clothes, and countenance. Nigel was therefore mortified and displeased when he found himself without notice or attendance; and the more dissatisfied, because he was at the same time angry with himself for suffering such a trifle to trouble him at all, amongst matters of more deep concernment. "There must surely be some servants in so large a house as this," said he, as he wandered over the place, through which he was conducted by a passage which branched off from the gallery. As he went on, he tried the entrance to several apartments, some of which he found were locked and others unfurnished, all apparently unoccupied; so that at length he returned to the staircase, and resolved to make his way down to the lower part of the house, where he supposed he must at least find the old gentleman, and his ill-favoured daughter.With this purpose he first made his entrance into a little low, dark parlour, containing a well-worn leathern easy chair, before which stood a pair of slippers, while on the left side rested a crutch-handled staff; an oaken table stood before it, and supported a huge desk clamped with iron, and a massive pewter inkstand. Around the apartment were shelves, cabinets, and other places convenient for depositing papers. A sword, musketoon, and a pair of pistols, hung over the chimney, in ostentatious display, as if to intimate that the proprietor would be prompt in the defence of his premises. "This must be the usurer's den," thought Nigel; and he was about to call aloud, when the old man, awakened even by the slightest noise, for avarice seldom sleeps sound, soon was heard from the inner room, speaking in a voice of irritability, rendered more tremulous by his morning cough. "Ugh, ugh, ugh-who is there? I say-ugh, ughwho is there? Why, Martha !-ugh, ugh Martha Trapbois-here be thieves in the house, and they will CHAP. XXII] THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL. likes him best." Nigel endeavoured to explain, but the idea of thieves had taken possession of the old man's pineal gland, and he kept coughing and screaming, and screaming and coughing, until the gracious Martha entered the apartment; and, having first outscreamed her father, in order to convince him that there was no danger, and to assure him that the intruder was their new lodger, and having as often heard her sire ejaculate "Hold him fast-ugh, ugh-hold him fast till I come," she at length succeeded in silencing his fears and his clamour, and then coldly and dryly asked Lord Glenvarloch what he wanted in her father's apartment. Her lodger had, in the meantime, leisure to contem- Such was Mrs. Martha Trapbois, whose dry "What "No-no-no, Martha," ejaculated her father, who, She pulled one of them aside, and showed a ponderous apparatus of bolts and chains for securing the side, seized her gown with a trembling hand. and said, window-shutters, while her father, pressing to her This last word was a favourite expression with the in a low whisper, "Show not the trick of locking and old gentleman, which he pronounced in a peculiar undoing them. Show him not the trick on't, Martha manner, gasping it out syllable by syllable, and lay--ugh, ugh-on no consideration." Martha went on, ing a strong emphasis upon the last. It was, indeed, without paying him any attention. a sort of protecting clause, by which he guarded himself against all inconveniences attendant on the rash habit of offering service or civility of any kind, the which, when hastily snapped at by those to whom they are uttered, give the profferer sometimes room to repent his promptitude. "For shame, father," said Martha, "that must not 'Say nothing of that, housewife," said the miser, his irritability increased by the very supposition of his being wealthy-"Say nothing of that, or I will beat thee, housewife-beat thee with my staff, for fetching | write it down in my tablets, in her very words,-"The and carrying lies that will procure our throats to be wise man is his own best assistant.' cut at last-ugh, ugh.-I am but a poor man," he continued, turning to Nigel-" a very poor man, that am willing to do any honest turn upon earth, for a modest consideration." "I therefore warn you of the life you must lead, young gentleman," said Martha; "the poor woman who does the char-work will assist you so far as is in her power, but the wise man is his own best servant and assistant." "It is a lesson you have taught me, madam, and I thank you for it-I will assuredly study it at leisure." "You will do well," said Martha; "and as you seem thankful for advice, I, though I am no professed counsellor of others, will give you more. Make no intimacy with any one in Whitefriars-borrow no money, on any score, especially from my father, for, dotard as he seems, he will make an ass of you.Last, and best of all, stay here not an instant longer than you can help it. Farewell, sir." 66 A gnarled tree may bear good fruit, and a harsh nature may give good counsel," thought the Lord of Glenvarloch, as he retreated to his own apartment, where the same reflection occurred to him again and again, while, unable as yet to reconcile himself to the thoughts of becoming his own firemaker, he walked up and down his bedroom, to warm himself by exercise. At length his meditations arranged themselves in the following soliloquy-by which expression I beg leave to observe once for all, that I do not mean that Nigel literally said aloud with his bodily organs, the words which follow in inverted commas, (while pacing the room by himself,) but that I myself choose to present to my dearest reader the picture of my hero's mind, his reflections and resolutions, in the form of a speech, rather than in that of a narrative. In other words, I have put his thoughts into language; and this I conceive to be the purpose of the soliloquy upon the stage as well as in the closet, being at once the most natural, and perhaps the only way of communicating to the spectator what is supposed to be passing in the bosom of the scenic personage. There are no such soliloquies in nature it is true, but unless they were received as a conventional medium of communication betwixt the poet and the audience, we should reduce dramatic authors to the recipe of Master Puff, who makes Lord Burleigh intimate a long train of political reasoning to the audience, by one comprehensive shake of his noddle. In narrative, no doubt, the writer has the alternative of telling that his personages thought so and so, inferred thus and thus, and arrived at such and such a conclusion; but the soliloquy is a more concise and spirited mode of communicating the same information; and therefore thus communed, or thus might have communed, the Lord of Glenvarloch with his own mind. "She is right, and has taught me a lesson I will profit by. I have been, through my whole life, one who leant upon others for that assistance, which it is more truly noble to derive from my own exertions. I am ashamed of feeling the paltry inconvenience which long habit had led me to annex to the want of a servant's assistance-I am ashamed of that; but far, far more am I ashamed to have suffered the same habit of throwing my own burden on others, to render me, since I came to this city, a mere victim of those events, which I have never even attempted to influence a thing never acting, but perpetually acted upon-protected by one friend, deceived by another; but in the advantage which I received from the one, and the evil I have sustained from the other, as passive and helpless as a boat that drifts without oar or rudder at the mercy of the winds and waves. I became a courtier, because Heriot so advised it-a gamester, because Dalgarno so contrived it-an Alsatian, because Lowestoffe so willed it. Whatever of good or bad has befallen me, hath arisen out of the agency of others, not from my own. My father's son must no longer hold this facile and puerile course. Live or die, sink or swim, Nigel Olifaunt, from this moment, shall owe his safety, success, and honour, to his own exertions, or shall fall with the credit of having at least exerted his own free agency. I will He had just put his tablets in his pocket when the old char-woman, who, to add to her efficiency, was sadly crippled by rheumatism, hobbled into the room, to try if she could gain a small gratification by waiting on the stranger. She readily undertook to get Lord Glenvarloch's breakfast, and, as there was an eating-house at the next door, she succeeded in a shorter time than Nigel had augured. As his solitary meal was finished, one of the Temple porters, or inferior officers, was announced as seeking Master Grahame, on the part of his friend, Master Lowestoffe; and, being admitted by the old woman to his apartment, he delivered to Nigel a small mail-trunk, with the clothes he had desired should be sent to him, and then, with more mystery, put into his hand a casket, or strong-box, which he carefully concealed beneath his cloak. "I am glad to be rid on't," said the fellow, as he placed it on the table. Why, it is surely not so very heavy," answered Nigel, "and you are a stout young man.' Ay, sir," replied the fellow; "but Sampson himself would not have carried such a matter safely through Alsatia, had the lads of the Huff known what it was. Please to look into it, sir, and see all is right-I am an honest fellow, and it comes safe out of my hands. How long it may remain so afterwards, will depend on your own care. I would not my good name were to suffer by any after-clap.' To satisfy the scruples of the messenger, Lord Glenvarloch opened the casket in his presence, and saw that his small stock of money, with two or three valuable papers which it contained, and particularly the original sign-manual which the King had granted in his favour, were in the same order in which he had left them. At the man's farther instance, he availed himself of the writing materials which were in the casket, in order to send a line to Master Lowestoffe, declaring that his property had reached him in safety. He added some grateful acknowledgments for Lowestoffe's services, and, just as he was sealing and delivering his billet to the messenger, his aged landlord entered the apartment. His threadbare suit of black clothes was now somewhat better arranged than they had been in the dishabille of his first appearance, and his nerves and intellects seemed to be less fluttered; for, without much coughing or hesitation, he invited Nigel to partake of a morning draught of wholesome single ale, which he brought in a large leathern tankard, or black-jack, carried in the one hand, while the other stirred it round with a sprig of rosemary, to give it, as the old man said, a flavour. Nigel declined the courteous proffer, and intimated by his manner, while he did so, that he desired no in trusion on the privacy of his own apartment; which, indeed, he was the more entitled to maintain, considering the cold reception he had that morning met with when straying from its precincts into those of his landlord. But the open casket contained matter, or rather metal, so attractive to old Trapbois, that he remained fixed, like a setting-dog at a dead point, his nose advanced, and one hand expanded like the lifted forepaw, by which that sagacious quadruped sometimes indicates that it is a hare which he has in the wind. Nigel was about to break the charm which had thus arrested old Trapbois, by shutting the lid of the casket, when his attention was withdrawn from him by the question of the messenger, who, holding out the letter, asked whether he was to leave it at Mr. Lowestoffe's chambers in the Temple, or carry it to the Marshalsea? "The Marshalsea?" repeated Lord Glenvarloch; "what of the Marshalsea?" "Why, sir," said the man, "the poor gentleman is laid up there in lavender, because, they say, his own kind heart led him to scald his fingers with another man's broth." Nigel hastily snatched back the letter, broke the seal, joined to the contents his earnest entreaty that he might be instantly acquainted with the cause of his confinement, and added, that, if it arose out of his own unhappy affair, it would be of brief duration, since he had, even before hearing of a reason which we had a carouse to your honour-we heard butt ring so peremptorily demanded that he should surrender hollow ere we parted; we were as loving as inkle himself, adopted the resolution to do so, as the man- weavers-we fought, too, to finish off the gawdy. I liest and most proper course which his ill fortune and bear some marks of the parson about me, you see-a imprudence had left in his own power. He therefore note of the sermon or so, which should have been conjured Mr. Lowestoffe to have no delicacy upon this addressed to my ear, but missed its mark, and reachscore, but, since his surrender was what he had de-ed my left eye. The man of God bears my sign-matermined upon as a sacrifice due to his own character, nual too, but the Duke made us friends again, and it that he would have the frankness to mention in what cost me more sack than I could carry, and all the manner it could be best arranged, so as to extricate Rhenish to boot, to pledge the seer in the way of love him, Lowestoffe, from the restraint to which the wri- and reconciliation-But, Caracco! 'tis a vile old cantter could not but fear his friend had been subjected, ing slave for all that, whom I will one day beat out on account of the generous interest which he had ta- of his devil's livery into all the colours of the rainbow. ken in his concerns. The letter concluded, that the Basta!-Said I well, old Trapbois? Where is thy writer would suffer twenty-four hours to elapse in ex- daughter, man?-what says she to my suit?-'tis an rectation of hearing from him, and, at the end of honest one-wilt have a soldier for thy son-in-law, that period, was determined to put his purpose in ex-old Pillory, to mingle the soul of martial honour with ecution. He delivered the billet to the messenger, and, thy thieving, mitching, petty-larceny blood, as men enforcing his request with a piece of money, urged put bold brandy into muddy ale?" him, without a moment's delay, to convey it to the hands of Master Lowestoffe. "I-I-I-will carry it to him myself," said the old usurer, "for half the consideration." The man who heard this attempt to take his duty and perquisites over his head, lost no time in pocketing the money, and departed on his errand as fast as he could. "Master Trapbois," said Nigel, addressing the old man somewhat impatiently, "had you any particular commands for me?" "I-1-came to see if you rested well," answered the old man; "and-if I could do any thing to serve you, on any consideration." "Sir, I thank you," said Lord Glenvarloch-"I thank you;" and, ere he could say more, a heavy footstep was heard on the stair. 66 My daughter receives not company so early, noble captain," said the usurer, and concluded his speech with a dry, emphatical "ugh, ugh." "What, upon no con-si-de-ra-ti-on?" said the captain; " and wherefore not, old Truepenny? she has not much time to lose in driving her bargain, methinks." 66 Captain," said Trapbois, "I was upon some little business with our noble friend here, Master Nigel Green-ugh, ugh, ugh”— 66 "And you would have me gone, I warrant you?" answered the bully; " but patience, old Pillory, thine hour is not yet come, man-You see," he said, pointing to the casket, "that noble Master Grahame, whom you call Green, has got the decuses and the smelts." Which you would willingly rid him of, ha! ha! -ugh, ugh," answered the usurer, "If you knew how "My God!" exclaimed the old man, starting up--but, lack-a-day! thou art one of those that come "Why, Dorothy-char-woman-why, daughter, out for wool, and art sure to go home shorn. Why draw bolt, I say, housewives-the door hath been left now, but that I am sworn against laying of wagers, I would risk some consideration that this honest guest of mine sends thee home pennyless, if thou da rest venture with him-ugh, ugh-at any game which gentlemen play at." a-latch !" The door of the chamber opened wide, and in strutted the portly bulk of the military hero whom Nigel had on the preceding evening in vain endeavoured to recognise. CHAPTER XXIII. Swash-Buckler. Bilboe's the word- The spell hath lost its charm-I tell thee, friend, "Marry, thou hast me on the hip there, thou old miserly cony-catcher!" answered the captain, taking a bale of dice from the sleeve of his coat; "I mus always keep company with these damnable doctors and they have made me every baby's cully, and purged my purse into an atrophy; but never mind, it passes the time as well as aught else-How say you, Master Grahame?" The fellow paused; but even the extremity of his impudence could hardly withstand the cold look of utter contempt with which Nigel received his proposal, returning it with a simple, "I only play where I know my company, and never in the morning.' "Cards may be more agreeable," said Captain Colepepper; "and, for knowing your company, here is honest old Pillory will tell you Jack Colepepper plays as truly on the square as e'er a man that trowled a dieMen talk of high and low dice, Fulhams and bristles, topping, knapping, slurring, stabbing, and a hundred ways of rooking besides; but broil me like a rasher of bacon, if I could ever learn the trick on 'em!" "You have got the vocabulary perfect, sir, at the least," said Nigel, in the same cold tone. Or, in plain terms, I'll use the private knife 'Stead of the brandish'd falchion.-Old Play. THE noble Captain Colepepper or Peppercull, for he was known by both these names, and some others besides, had a martial and a swashing exterior, which, on the present occasion, was rendered yet more peculiar, by a patch covering his left eye and a part of the cheek. The sleeves of his thickset velvet jerkin were polished and shone with grease,-his buff gloves had huge tops, which reached almost to the elbow; his sword-belt of the same materials extended its breadth from the haunch-bone to his small ribs, and supported on the one side his large blackhilted back-sword, on the other a dagger of like proportions. He paid his compliments to Nigel with that air of predetermined effrontery, which announces that it will not be repelled by any coldness of reception, asked Trapbois how he did, by the familiar title of old Peter Pillory, and then, seizing upon the "I beg to be excused at present," said Lord Glenblack-jack, emptied it off at a draught, to the health varloch; "and to be plain, among the valuable priviof the last and youngest freeman of Alsatia, the no-leges your society has conferred on me, I hope I may ble and loving Master Nigel Grahame. When he had set down the empty pitcher and drawn his breath, he began to criticise the liquor which it had lately contained.-"Sufficient single beer, old Pillory and, as I take it, brewed at the rate of a nutshell of malt to a butt of Thames-as dead as a corpse, too, and yet it went hissing down my throat -bubbling, by Jove, like water upon hot iron.—You left us early, noble Master Grahame, but, good faith. "Yes, by mine honour have I," returned the Hector; "they are phrases that a gentleman learns about town.-But perhaps you would like a set at tennis, or a game at Balloon-we have an indifferent good court hard by here, and a set of as gentlemanlike blades as ever banged leather against brick and mortar." reckon that of being private in my own apartment when I have a mind." "Your humble servant, sir," said the captain; "and I thank you for your civility-Jack Colepepper can have enough of company, and thrusts himself on no one.-But perhaps you will like to make a match at skittles?" "I am by no means that way disposed," replied the young nobleman. |