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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Vol. 5
+by Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Vol. 5
+
+Author: Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
+
+Release Date: October 27, 2006 [EBook #5238]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRY LORREQUER, VOL. 5 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Munarin and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF HARRY LORREQUER, Vol. 5
+
+[By Charles James Lever (1806-1872)]
+
+
+Dublin
+
+MDCCCXXXIX.
+
+
+
+Volume 5. (Chapter XXIX-XLI)
+
+
+Contents:
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+Captain Trevanion's Adventure
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+Difficulties
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+Explanation
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+Mr O'Leary's First Love
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+Mr O'Leary's Second Love
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+The Duel
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+Early Recollections--A First Love
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+Wise Resolves
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+The Proposal
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+Thoughts upon Matrimony in general, and in the Army in particular--The
+Knight of Kerry and Billy M'Cabe
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+A Reminiscence
+
+CHAPTER XL
+The Two Letters
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+Mr O'Leary's Capture
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CAPTAIN TREVANION'S ADVENTURE.
+
+As the day was now waning apace, and I was still unprovided with any one
+who could act as my second, I set out upon a search through the various
+large hotels in the neighbourhood, trusting that amid my numerous
+acquaintance I should be fortunate enough to find some of them at Paris.
+With a most anxious eye I scanned the lists of arrivals at the usual
+haunts of my countrymen, in the Rue Rivoli, and the Place Vendome, but
+without success; there were long catalogues of "Milors," with their
+"couriers," &c. but not one name known to me in the number.
+
+I repaired to Galignani's library, which, though crowded as ever with
+English, did not present to me one familiar face.  From thence I turned
+into the Palais Royale, and at last, completely jaded by walking, and
+sick from disappointment, I sat down upon a bench in the Tuilleries
+Garden.
+
+I had scarcely been there many minutes when a gentleman accosted me in
+English, saying, "May I ask if this be your property?" showing, at the
+same time, a pocket-book which I had inadvertently dropped in pulling out
+my handkerchief.  As I thanked him for his attention, and was about to
+turn away, I perceived that he continued to look very steadily at me.  At
+length he said,
+
+"I think I am not mistaken; I have the pleasure to see Mr. Lorrequer, who
+may perhaps recollect my name, Trevanion of the 43rd.  The last time we
+met was at Malta."
+
+"Oh, I remember perfectly.  Indeed I should be very ungrateful if I did
+not; for to your kind offices there I am indebted for my life.  You must
+surely recollect the street row at the 'Caserne?'"
+
+"Yes; that was a rather brisk affair while it lasted; but, pray, how long
+are you here?"
+
+"Merely a few days; and most anxious am I to leave as soon as possible;
+for, independently of pressing reasons to wish myself elsewhere, I have
+had nothing but trouble and worry since my arrival, and at this instant
+am involved in a duel, without the slightest cause that I can discover,
+and, what is still worse, without the aid of a single friend to undertake
+the requisite negociation for me."
+
+"If my services can in any way assist--"
+
+"Oh, my dear captain, this is really so great a favour that I cannot say
+how much I thank you."
+
+"Say nothing whatever, but rest quite assured that I am completely at
+your disposal; for although we are not very old friends, yet I have heard
+so much of you from some of ours, that I feel as if we had been long
+acquainted."
+
+This was an immense piece of good fortune to me; for, of all the persons
+I knew, he was the most suited to aid me at this moment.  In addition to
+a thorough knowledge of the continent and its habits, he spoke French
+fluently, and had been the most renomme authority in the duello to a
+large military acquaintance; joining to a consummate tact and cleverness
+in his diplomacy, a temper that never permitted itself to be ruffled, and
+a most unexceptionable reputation for courage.  In a word, to have had
+Trevanion for your second, was not only to have secured odds in your
+favour, but, still better, to have obtained the certainty that, let the
+affair take what turn it might, you were sure of coming out of it with
+credit.  He was the only man I have ever met, who had much mixed himself
+in transactions of this nature, and yet never, by any chance, had
+degenerated into the fire-eater; more quiet, unassuming manners it was
+impossible to meet with, and, in the various anecdotes I have heard of
+him, I have always traced a degree of forbearance, that men of less known
+bravery might not venture to practise.  At the same time, when once
+roused by any thing like premeditated insult--or pre-determined affront
+--he became almost ungovernable, and it would be safer to beard the lion
+in his den than cross his path.  Among the many stories, and there were a
+great many current in his regiment concerning him, there was one so
+singularly characteristic of the man, that, as I have passingly mentioned
+his name here, I may as well relate it; at the same time premising that,
+as it is well known, I may only be repeating an often-heard tale to many
+of my readers.
+
+When the regiment to which Trevanion belonged became part of the army of
+occupation in Paris, he was left at Versailles seriously ill from the
+effects of a sabre-wound he received at Waterloo, and from which his
+recovery at first was exceedingly doubtful.  At the end of several weeks,
+however, he became out of danger, and was able to receive the visits of
+his brother officers, whenever they were fortunate enough to obtain a
+day's leave of absence, to run down and see him.  From them he learned
+that one of his oldest friends in the regiment had fallen in a duel,
+during the time of his illness, and that two other officers were
+dangerously wounded--one of whom was not expected to survive.  When he
+inquired as to the reasons of these many disasters, he was informed that
+since the entrance of the allies into Paris, the French officers, boiling
+with rage and indignation at their recent defeat, and smarting under the
+hourly disgrace which the presence of their conquerors suggested, sought
+out, by every means in their power, opportunities of insult; but always
+so artfully contrived as to render the opposite party the challenger,
+thus reserving to themselves the choice of weapons.  When therefore it
+is borne in mind that the French are the most expert swordsmen in Europe,
+little doubt can exist as to the issue of these combats; and, in fact,
+scarcely a morning passed without three or four English or Prussian
+officers being carried through the Barriere de l'Etoile, if not dead, at
+least seriously wounded, and condemned to carry with them through life
+the inflictions of a sanguinary and savage spirit of revenge.
+
+While Trevanion listened to this sad recital, and scarcely did a day come
+without adding to the long catalogue of disasters, he at once perceived
+that the quiet deportment and unassuming demeanour which so strongly
+characterise the English officer, were construed by their French
+opponents into evidences of want of courage, and saw that to so
+systematic a plan for slaughter no common remedy could be applied, and
+that some "coup d'etat" was absolutely necessary, to put it down once
+and for ever.
+
+In the history of these sanguinary rencontres, one name was continually
+recurring, generally as the principal, sometimes the instigator of the
+quarrel.  This was an officer of a chasseur regiment, who had the
+reputation of being the best swordsman in the whole French army, and was
+no less distinguished for his "skill at fence," than his uncompromising
+hatred of the British, with whom alone, of all the allied forces, he was
+ever known to come in contact.  So celebrated was the "Capitaine Augustin
+Gendemar" for his pursuits, that it was well known at that time in Paris
+that he was the president of a duelling club, associated for the express
+and avowed object of provoking to insult, and as certainly dooming to
+death every English officer upon whom they could fasten a quarrel.
+
+The Cafe Philidor, at that period in the Rue Vivienne, was the rendezvous
+of this reputable faction, and here "le Capitaine" reigned supreme,
+receiving accounts of the various "affairs" which were transacting
+--counselling and plotting for the future.  His ascendancy among his
+countrymen was perfectly undisputed, and being possessed of great
+muscular strength, with that peculiarly "farouche" exterior, without
+which courage is nothing in France, he was in every way calculated for
+the infamous leadership he assumed.
+
+It was, unfortunately, to this same cafe, being situated in what was
+called the English quarter, that the officers of the 43rd regiment were
+in the habit of resorting, totally unaware of the plots by which they
+were surrounded, and quite unsuspecting the tangled web of deliberate and
+cold-blooded assassination in which they were involved, and here took
+place the quarrel, the result of which was the death of Trevanion's
+friend, a young officer of great promise, and universally beloved in his
+regiment.
+
+As Trevanion listened to these accounts, his impatience became daily
+greater, that his weak state should prevent his being among his brother
+officers, when his advice and assistance were so imperatively required,
+and where, amid all the solicitude for his perfect recovery, he could not
+but perceive they ardently wished for him.
+
+The day at last arrived, and restored to something like his former self,
+Trevanion once more appeared in the mess-room of his regiment.  Amid the
+many sincere and hearty congratulations on his recovered looks, were not
+a few half-expressed hints that he might not go much out into the world
+for some little time to come.  To these friendly admonitions Trevanion
+replied by a good-humoured laugh, and a ready assurance that he
+understood the intended kindness, and felt in no wise disposed to be
+invalided again.  "In fact," said he, "I have come up here to enjoy life
+a little, not to risque it; but, among the sights of your gay capital, I
+must certainly have a peep at your famed captain, of whom I have heard
+too much not to feel an interest in him."
+
+Notwithstanding the many objections to this, made with a view to delay
+his visit to the Philidor to a later period, it was at length agreed,
+that they should all repair to the cafe that evening, but upon the
+express understanding that every cause of quarrel should be strictly
+avoided, and that their stay should be merely sufficient to satisfy
+Trevanion's curiosity as to the personnel of the renomme captain.
+
+It was rather before the usual hour of the cafe's filling, that a number
+of English officers, among whom was Trevanion, entered the "salon" of the
+"Philidor;" having determined not to attract any unusual attention, they
+broke into little knots and parties of threes and fours, and dispersed
+through the room, where they either sipped their coffee or played at
+dominoes, then, as now, the staple resource of a French cafe.
+
+The clock over the "comptoir" struck eight, and, at the same instant,
+a waiter made his appearance, carrying a small table, which he placed
+beside the fire, and, having trimmed a lamp, and placed a large fauteuil
+before it, was about to withdraw, when Trevanion, whose curiosity was
+roused by the singularity of these arrangements, determined upon asking
+for whose comfort they were intended.  The waiter stared for a moment at
+the question, with an air as if doubting the seriousness of him who put
+it, and at last replied--"Pour Monsieur le Capitaine, je crois," with a
+certain tone of significance upon the latter words.
+
+"Le Capitaine! but what captain?" said he, carelessly; "for I am a
+captain, and that gentleman there--and there, too, is another," at the
+same instant throwing himself listlessly into the well-cushioned chair,
+and stretching out his legs at full length upon the hearth.
+
+The look of horror which this quiet proceeding on his part, elicited from
+the poor waiter, so astonished him that he could not help saying--"is
+there any thing the matter with you, my friend; are you ill?"
+
+"No, monsieur, not ill; nothing the matter with me; but you, sir; oh,
+you, sir, pray come away."
+
+"Me," said Trevanion; "me! why, my good man, I was never better in my
+life; so now just bring me my coffee and the Moniteur, if you have it;
+there, don't stare that way, but do as I bid you."
+
+There was something in the assured tone of these few words that either
+overawed or repressed every rising feeling of the waiter, for his
+interrogator; for, silently handing his coffee and the newspaper, he left
+the room; not, however, without bestowing a parting glance so full of
+terror and dismay that our friend was obliged to smile at it.  All this
+was the work of a few minutes, and not until the noise of new arrivals
+had attracted the attention of his brother officers, did they perceive
+where he had installed himself, and to what danger he was thus, as they
+supposed, unwittingly exposed.
+
+It was now, however, too late for remonstrance; for already several
+French officers had noticed the circumstance, and by their interchange of
+looks and signs, openly evinced their satisfaction at it, and their
+delight at the catastrophe which seemed inevitable to the luckless
+Englishman.
+
+In perfect misery at what they conceived their own fault, in not
+apprising him of the sacred character of that place, they stood silently
+looking at him as he continued to sip his coffee, apparently unconscious
+of every thing and person about him.
+
+There was now a more than ordinary silence in the cafe, which at all
+times was remarkable for the quiet and noiseless demeanour of its
+frequenters, when the door was flung open by the ready waiter, and the
+Capitaine Augustin Gendemar entered.  He was a large, squarely-built man,
+with a most savage expression of countenance, which a bushy beard and
+shaggy overhanging moustache served successfully to assist; his eyes were
+shaded by deep, projecting brows, and long eyebrows slanting over them,
+and increasing their look of piercing sharpness; there was in his whole
+air and demeanour that certain French air of swaggering bullyism, which
+ever remained in those who, having risen from the ranks, maintained the
+look of ruffianly defiance which gave their early character for courage
+peculiar merit.
+
+To the friendly salutations of his countrymen he returned the slightest
+and coldest acknowledgments, throwing a glance of disdain around him as
+he wended his way to his accustomed place beside the fire; this he did
+with as much of noise and swagger as he could well contrive; his sabre
+and sabretasch clanking behind, his spurs jangling, and his heavy step,
+made purposely heavier to draw upon him the notice and attention he
+sought for.  Trevanion alone testified no consciousness of his entrance,
+and appeared totally engrossed by the columns of his newspaper, from
+which he never lifted his eyes for an instant.  Le Capitaine at length
+reached the fire-place, when, no sooner did he behold his accustomed seat
+in the possession of another, than he absolutely started back with
+surprise and anger.
+
+What might have been his first impulse it is hard to say, for, as the
+blood rushed to his face and forehead, he clenched his hands firmly, and
+seemed for an instant, as he eyed the stranger, like a tiger about to
+spring upon its victim; this was but for a second, for turning rapidly
+round towards his party, he gave them a look of peculiar meaning, showing
+two rows of white teeth, with a grin which seemed to say, "I have taken
+my line;" and he had done so.  He now ordered the waiter, in a voice of
+thunder, to bring him a chair, this he took roughly from him, and placed,
+with a crash, upon the floor, exactly opposite that of Trevanion, and
+still so near as scarcely to permit of his sitting down upon it.  The
+noisy vehemence of this action at last appeared to have roused
+Trevanion's attention, for he now, for the first time, looked up from his
+paper, and quietly regarded his vis-a-vis.  There could not in the world
+be a stronger contrast to the bland look and courteous expression of
+Trevanion's handsome features, than the savage scowl of the enraged
+Frenchman, in whose features the strong and ill-repressed workings of
+passion were twitching and distorting every lineament and line; indeed no
+words could ever convey one half so forcibly as did that look, insult
+--open, palpable, deep, determined insult.
+
+Trevanion, whose eyes had been merely for a moment lifted from his
+paper, again fell, and he appeared to take no notice whatever of the
+extraordinary proximity of the Frenchman, still less of the savage and
+insulting character of his looks.
+
+Le Capitaine, having thus failed to bring on the eclaircissement he
+sought for, proceeded to accomplish it by other means; for, taking the
+lamp, by the light of which Trevanion was still reading, he placed it at
+his side of the table, and at the same instant stretching across his arm,
+he plucked the newspaper from his hand, giving at the same moment a
+glance of triumph towards the bystanders, as though he would say, "you
+see what he must submit to."  Words cannot describe the astonishment of
+the British officers, as they beheld Trevanion, under this gross and open
+insult, content himself by a slight smile and half bow, as if returning
+a courtesy, and then throw his eyes downward, as if engaged in deep
+thought, while the triumphant sneer of the French, at this unaccountable
+conduct, was absolutely maddening to them to endure.
+
+But their patience was destined to submit to stronger proof, for at this
+instant le Capitaine stretched forth one enormous leg, cased in his
+massive jack-boot, and with a crash deposited the heel upon the foot of
+their friend Trevanion.  At length he is roused, thought they, for a
+slight flush of crimson flitted across his cheek, and his upper lip
+trembled with a quick spasmodic twitching; but both these signs were over
+in a second, and his features were as calm and unmoved as before, and his
+only appearance of consciousness of the affront, was given by his drawing
+back his chair and placing his legs beneath it, as for protection.
+
+This last insult, and the tame forbearance with which it was submitted
+to, produced all their opposite effects upon the by-standers, and
+looks of ungovernable rage and derisive contempt were every moment
+interchanging; indeed, were it not for the all-absorbing interest which
+the two great actors in the scene had concentrated upon themselves, the
+two parties must have come at once into open conflict.
+
+The clock of the cafe struck nine, the hour at which Gendemar always
+retired, so calling to the waiter for his petit verre of brandy, he
+placed his newspaper upon the table, and putting both his elbows upon it,
+and his chin upon his hands, he stared full in Trevanion's face, with a
+look of the most derisive triumph, meant to crown the achievement of the
+evening.  To this, as to all his former insults, Trevanion appeared still
+insensible, and merely regarded him with his never--changing half smile;
+the petite verre arrived; le Capitaine took it in his hand, and, with a
+nod of most insulting familiarity, saluted Trevanion, adding with a loud
+voice, so as to be heard on every side--"a votre courage, Anglais."  He
+had scarcely swallowed the liqueur when Trevanion rose slowly from his
+chair, displaying to the astonished gaze of the Frenchman the immense
+proportions and gigantic frame of a man well known as the largest officer
+in the British army; with one stride he was beside the chair of the
+Frenchman, and with the speed of lightening he seized his nose by one
+hand, while with the other he grasped his lower jaw, and, wrenching open
+his mouth with the strength of an ogre, he spat down his throat.
+
+So sudden was the movement, that before ten seconds had elapsed, all was
+over, and the Frenchman rushed from the room, holding the fragments of
+his jaw-bone, (for it was fractured!) And followed by his countrymen,
+who, from that hour, deserted the Cafe Philidor, nor was there ever any
+mention of the famous captain during the stay of the regiment in Paris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+DIFFICULTIES.
+
+While we walked together towards Meurice, I explained to Trevanion the
+position in which I stood; and having detailed, at full length, the
+fracas at the Salon, and the imprisonment of O'Leary, entreated his
+assistance in behalf of him, as well as to free me from some of my many
+embarrassments.
+
+It was strange enough--though at first so pre-occupied was I with other
+thoughts, that I paid but little attention to it--that no part of my
+eventful evening seemed to make so strong an impression on him as my
+mention of having seen my cousin Guy, and heard from him of the death of
+my uncle.  At this portion of my story he smiled, with so much
+significance of meaning, that I could not help asking his reason.
+
+"It is always an unpleasant task, Mr. Lorrequer, to speak in any way,
+however delicately, in a tone of disparagement of a man's relatives; and,
+therefore, as we are not long enough acquainted--"
+
+"But pray," said I, "waive that consideration, and only remember the
+position in which I now am.  If you know any thing of this business, I
+entreat you to tell me--I promise to take whatever you may be disposed to
+communicate, in the same good part it is intended."
+
+"Well, then, I believe you are right; but, first, let me ask you, how do
+you know of your uncle's death; for I have reason to doubt it?"
+
+"From Guy; he told me himself."
+
+"When did you see him, and where?"
+
+"Why, I have just told you; I saw him last night at the Salon."
+
+"And you could not be mistaken?"
+
+"Impossible!  Besides, he wrote to me a note which I received this
+morning--here it is."
+
+"Hem--ha.  Well, are you satisfied that this is his handwriting?" said
+Trevanion, as he perused the note slowly twice over.
+
+"Why, of course--but stop--you are right; it is not his hand, nor do I
+know the writing, now that you direct my attention to it.  But what can
+that mean?  You, surely, do not suppose that I have mistaken any one for
+him; for, independent of all else, his knowledge of my family, and my
+uncle's affairs, would quite disprove that."
+
+"This is really a complex affair," said Trevanion, musingly.  "How long
+may it be since you saw your cousin--before last night, I mean?"
+
+"Several years; above six, certainly."
+
+"Oh, it is quite possible, then," said Trevanion, musingly; "do you know,
+Mr. Lorrequer, this affair seems much more puzzling to me than to you,
+and for this plain reason--I am disposed to think you never saw your
+cousin last night."
+
+"Why, confound it, there is one circumstance that I think may satisfy you
+on that head.  You will not deny that I saw some one, who very much
+resembled him; and certainly, as he lent me above three thousand franks
+to play with at the table, it looks rather more like his act than that of
+a perfect stranger."
+
+"Have you got the money?" asked Trevanion dryly.
+
+"Yes," said I; "but certainly you are the most unbelieving of mortals,
+and I am quite happy that I have yet in my possession two of the billets
+de banque, for, I suppose, without them, you would scarcely credit me."
+I here opened my pocket-book, and produced the notes.
+
+He took them, examined them attentively for an instant, held them between
+him and the light, refolded them, and, having placed them in my
+pocket-book, said--"I thought as much--they are forgeries."
+
+"Hold!" said I, "my cousin Guy, whatever wildness he may have committed,
+is yet totally incapable of--"
+
+"I never said the contrary, replied Trevanion, in the same dry tone as
+before.
+
+"Then what can you mean, for I see no alternative between that and
+totally discrediting the evidence of my senses?"
+
+"Perhaps I can suggest a middle course," said Trevanion; "lend me,
+therefore, a patient hearing for a few moments, and I may be able to
+throw some light upon this difficult matter.  You may never have heard
+that there is, in this same city of Paris, a person so extremely like
+your cousin Guy, that his most intimate friends have daily mistaken one
+for the other, and this mistake has the more often been made, from the
+circumstances of their both being in the habit of frequenting the same
+class in society, where, knowing and walking with the same people, the
+difficulty of discriminating has been greatly increased.  This
+individual, who has too many aliases for one to know which to
+particularise him by, is one of that numerous order of beings whom a
+high state of civilization is always engendering and throwing up on the
+surface of society; he is a man of low birth and mean connexions, but
+gifted with most taking manners and an unexceptionable address and
+appearance; these advantages, and the possession of apparently
+independent means, have opened to him the access to a certain set of
+people, who are well known and well received in society, and obtained for
+him, what he prizes much more, the admission into several clubs where
+high play is carried on.  In this mixed assemblage, which sporting habits
+and gambling, (that grand leveller of all distinctions,) have brought
+together, this man and your cousin Guy met frequently, and, from the
+constant allusion to the wonderful resemblance between them, your
+eccentric cousin, who, I must say, was never too select in his
+acquaintances, frequently amused himself by practical jokes upon their
+friends, which served still more to nurture the intimacy between them;
+and from this habit, Mr. Dudley Morewood, for such is his latest
+patronymic, must have enjoyed frequent opportunities of hearing much of
+your family and relations, a species of information he never neglected,
+though at the moment it might appear not so immediately applicable to his
+purposes.  Now, this man, who knows of every new English arrival in
+Paris, with as much certainty as the police itself, would at once be
+aware of your being here, and having learned from Guy how little
+intercourse there had been of late years between you, would not let slip
+an opportunity of availing himself of the likeness, if any thing could
+thereby turn to his profit."
+
+"Stop," cried I; "you have opened my eyes completely, for now I remember
+that, as I continued to win last night, this man, who was playing hazard
+at another table, constantly borrowed from me, but always in gold,
+invariably refusing the billets de banque as too high for his game."
+
+"There his object was clear enough; for besides obtaining your gold, he
+made you the means of disseminating his false billets de banque."
+
+"So that I have been actually playing and winning upon this fellow's
+forgeries," said I; "and am perhaps at this very instant inscribed in the
+'Livre noir' of the police, as a most accomplished swindler; but what
+could be the intention of his note of this morning?"
+
+"As to that," said Trevanion, "it is hard to say; one thing you may
+assuredly rely upon--it is not an unnecessary epistle, whatever be its
+object; he never wastes his powder when the game flies too high; so we
+must only wait patiently for the unravelment of his plans, satisfied that
+we, at least, know something.  What most surprises me is, his venturing,
+at present, to appear in public; for it is not above two months since an
+escapade of his attracted so much attention of the play world here, that
+he was obliged to leave, and it was supposed that he would never return
+to Paris."
+
+"One piece of good fortune there is at least," said I, "which, I can
+safely say repays me for any and all the annoyance this unhappy affair
+may cause me; it is, that my poor old uncle is still alive and well.
+Not all my anticipated pleasures, in newly acquired wealth, could have
+afforded me the same gratification that this fact does, for, although
+never so much his favourite as my cousin, yet the sense of protection
+--the feeling of confidence, which is inseparable from the degree of
+relationship between us--standing, as he has ever done, in the light
+of a father to me, is infinitely more pleasurable than the possession of
+riches, which must ever suggest to me, the recollection of a kind friend
+lost to me for ever.  But so many thoughts press on me--so many effects
+of this affair are staring me in the face--I really know not which way to
+turn, nor can I even collect my ideas sufficiently, to determine what is
+first to be done."
+
+"Leave all that to me," said Trevanion; "it is a tangled web, but I think
+I can unravel it; meanwhile, where does the Militaire reside? for, among
+all your pressing engagements, this affair with the Frenchman must come
+off first; and for this reason, although you are not really obliged to
+give him satisfaction, by his merely producing your card, and insisting
+that you are to be responsible for the misdeeds of any one who might show
+it as his own address, yet I look upon it as a most fortunate thing,
+while charges so heavy may be at this moment hanging over your head, as
+the proceedings of last night involve, that you have a public opportunity
+of meeting an antagonist in the field--thereby evincing no fear of
+publicity, nor any intention of absconding; for be assured, that the
+police are at this moment in possession of what has occurred, and from
+the fracas which followed, are well disposed to regard the whole as a
+concerted scheme to seize upon the property of the banque, a not uncommon
+wind-up here after luck fails.  My advice is therefore, meet the man at
+once; I shall take care that the prefect is informed that you have been
+imposed upon by a person passing himself off as your relative, and enter
+bail for your appearance, whenever you are called upon; that being done,
+we shall have time for a moment's respite to look around us, and consider
+the other bearings of this difficult business."
+
+"Here, then, is the card of address," said I; "Eugene Dejoncourt
+Capitaine de Cavalerie, No. 8, Chausse D'Antin."
+
+"Dejoncourt! why, confound it, this is not so pleasant; he is about the
+best shot in Paris, and a very steady swordsman besides, I don't like
+this."
+
+"But you forget he is the friend, not the principal here."
+
+"The more good fortune yours," said Trevanion, drily; "for I acknowledge
+I should not give much for your chance at twenty paces opposite his
+pistol; then who is the other?"
+
+"Le Baron d'Haulpenne," said I, "and his name is all that I know of him;
+his very appearance is unknown to me."
+
+"I believe I am acquainted with him," said Trevanion; "but here we are at
+Meurice.  Now I shall just write a few lines to a legal friend, who will
+manage to liberate Mr. O'Leary, whose services we shall need, two persons
+are usual on each side in this country, and then, 'a l'ouvrage.'"
+
+The note written and despatched; Trevanion jumped into a cab, and set out
+for the Chausse D'Antin; leaving me to think over, as well as I could,
+the mass of trouble and confusion that twenty-four hours of life in Paris
+had involved me in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+EXPLANATION.
+
+It was past seven o'clock when Trevanion made his appearance, accompanied
+by O'Leary; and having in few words informed me that a meeting was fixed
+for the following morning, near St. Cloud, proposed that we should go to
+dinner at Verey's, after which we should have plenty of time to discuss
+the various steps to be taken.  As we were leaving the hotel for this
+purpose, a waiter requested of me to permit Mr. Meurice to speak a few
+words to me; which, having agreed to, I entered the little bureau where
+this Czar of hotels sits enthroned, and what was my surprise to learn the
+request he had to prefer, was nothing less than that I would so far
+oblige him as to vacate the room I possessed in the hotel, adding that my
+compliance would confer upon him the power to accommodate a "milor" who
+had written for apartments, and was coming with a large suite of
+servants.  Suspecting that some rumour of the late affair at Frescati
+might have influenced my friend Meurice in this unusual demand, I
+abruptly refused, and was about to turn away, when he, perhaps guessing
+that I had not believed his statements, handed me an open letter, saying,
+"You see, sir, this is the letter; and, as I am so pressed for spare
+room, I must now refuse the writer."
+
+As my eye glanced at the writing, I started back with amazement to
+perceive it was in my cousin Guy's hand, requesting that apartments might
+be retained for Sir Guy Lorrequer, my uncle, who was to arrive in Paris
+by the end of the week.  If any doubt had remained on my mind as to the
+deception I had been duped by, this would completely have dispelled it,
+but I had long before been convinced of the trick, and only wondered how
+the false Guy--Mr. Dudley Morewood--had contrived to present himself to
+me so opportunely, and by what means, in so short a space of time, he had
+become acquainted with my personal appearance.
+
+As I mentioned this circumstance of the letter to Trevanion, he could not
+conceal his satisfaction at his sagacity in unravelling the mystery,
+while this new intelligence confirmed the justness and accuracy of all
+his explanations.
+
+While we walked along towards the Palais Royale, Trevanion endeavoured
+not very successfully, to explain to my friend O'Leary, the nature of the
+trick which had been practised, promising, at another time, some
+revelations concerning the accomplished individual who had planned it,
+which, in boldness and daring, eclipsed even this.
+
+Any one who in waking has had the confused memory of a dream in which
+events have been so mingled and mixed as to present no uniform narrative,
+but only a mass of strange and incongruous occurrences, without object or
+connexion, may form some notion of the state of restless excitement my
+brain suffered from, as the many and conflicting ideas my late adventures
+suggested, presented themselves to my mind in rapid succession.
+
+The glare, the noise, and the clatter of a French cafe are certainly not
+the agents most in request for restoring a man to the enjoyment of his
+erring faculties; and, if I felt addled and confused before, I had
+scarcely passed the threshold of Verey's when I became absolutely like
+one in a trance.  The large salon was more than usually crowded, and it
+was with difficulty that we obtained a place at a table where some other
+English were seated, among whom I recognised by lately made acquaintance,
+Mr. Edward Bingham.
+
+Excepting a cup of coffee I had taken nothing the entire day, and so
+completely did my anxieties of different kinds subdue all appetite, that
+the most recherche viands of this well-known restaurant did not in the
+least tempt me.  The champagne alone had any attraction for me; and,
+seduced by the icy coldness of the wine, I drank copiously.  This was all
+that was wanting to complete the maddening confusion of my brain, and the
+effect was instantaneous; the lights danced before my eyes; the lustres
+whirled round; and, as the scattered fragments of conversations, on
+either side met my ear, I was able to form some not very inaccurate
+conception of what insanity may be.  Politics and literature, Mexican
+bonds and Noblet's legs, Pates de perdreaux and the quarantine laws, the
+extreme gauche and the "Bains Chinois," Victor Hugo and rouge et noir,
+had formed a species of grand ballet d'action in my fevered brain, and I
+was perfectly beside myself; occasionally, too, I would revert to my own
+concerns, although I was scarcely able to follow up any train of thought
+for more than a few seconds together, and totally inadequate to
+distinguish the false from the true.  I continued to confound the
+counterfeit with my cousin, and wonder how my poor uncle, for whom I was
+about to put on the deepest mourning, could possibly think of driving me
+out of my lodgings.  Of my duel for the morning, I had the most shadowy
+recollection, and could not perfectly comprehend whether it was O'Leary
+or I was the principal, and indeed cared but little.  In this happy state
+of independent existence I must have passed a considerable time, and as
+my total silence when spoken to, or my irrelevant answers, appeared to
+have tired out my companions, they left me to the uninterrupted enjoyment
+of my own pleasant imaginings.
+
+"Do you hear, Lorrequer," at last said Trevanion; "are you asleep, my
+dear friend?  This gentleman has been good enough to invite us to
+breakfast to-morrow at St. Cloud."
+
+I looked up, and was just able to recognise the well-trimmed moustache of
+Mr. Edward Bingham, as he stood mumbling something before me.  "St. Cloud
+--what of St. Cloud?" said I.
+
+"We have something in that quarter to-morrow."
+
+"What is it, O'Leary?  Can we go?"
+
+"Oh! certainly--our engagement's an early one."
+
+"We shall accept your polite invitation with pleasure"--
+
+Here he stooped over, and whispered something in my ear; what, I cannot
+say, but I know that my reply, now equally lost to me, produced a hearty
+fit of laughing to my two friends.
+
+My next recollection is, finding myself in a crowded loge at the theatre.
+It seems that O'Leary had acceded to a proposal from some of the other
+party to accompany them to the Porte St. Martin, where Mrs. Bingham and
+her daughter had engaged a box.  Amid all the confusion which troubled
+thoughts and wine produced in me, I could not help perceiving a studied
+politeness and attention on the part of Mr. Edward Bingham towards me;
+and my first sobering reflection came, on finding that a place was
+reserved for me beside Miss Bingham, into which, by some contrivance I
+can in no wise explain, I found myself almost immediately installed.  To
+all the excitements of champagne and punch, let the attractions of a
+French ballet be added, and, with a singularly pretty companion at your
+side, to whom you have already made sufficient advances to be aware that
+you are no longer indifferent to her, and I venture to predict, that it
+is much more likely your conversation will incline to flirting than
+political economy; and, moreover, that you make more progress during the
+performance of one single pas de deux upon the stage, than you have
+hitherto done in ten morning calls, with an unexceptionable whisker and
+the best fitting gloves in Paris.  Alas! alas! it is only the rich man
+that ever wins at rouge et noir.  The well-insured Indiaman, with her
+cargo of millions, comes safe into port; while the whole venture of some
+hardy veteran of the wave, founders within sight of his native shore.  So
+is it ever; where success would be all and every thing, it never comes
+--but only be indifferent or regardless, and fortune is at your feet,
+suing and imploring your acceptance of her favours.  What would I not
+have given for one half of that solicitude now so kindly expressed in my
+favour by Miss Bingham, if syllabled by the lips of Lady Jane Callonby
+--how would my heart have throbbed for one light smile from one, while I
+ungratefully basked in the openly avowed preference of the other.  These
+were my first thoughts--what were the succeeding ones?
+
+"Comment elle est belle," said a Frenchwoman, turning round in the box
+next to us, and directing at the same moment the eyes of a moustached
+hero upon my fair companion.
+
+What a turn to my thoughts did this unexpected ejaculation give rise to!
+I now began to consider her more attentively, and certainly concurred
+fully in the Frenchwoman's verdict.  I had never see her look half so
+well before.  The great fault in her features, which were most
+classically regular, lay in the monotony and uniform character of their
+expression.  Now this was quite changed.  Her cheek was slightly flushed,
+and her eyes more brilliant than ever; while her slightly parted lips
+gave a degree of speaking earnestness to her expression, that made her
+perfectly beautiful.
+
+Whether it was from this cause I cannot say, but I certainly never felt
+so suddenly decided in my life from one course to its very opposite, as I
+now did to make l'aimable to my lovely companion.  And here, I fear, I
+must acknowledge, in the honesty of these confessional details, that
+vanity had also its share in the decision.  To be the admitted and
+preferred suitor of the prettiest woman in company, is generally a strong
+inducement to fall desperately in love with her, independently of other
+temptations for so doing.
+
+How far my successes tallied with my good intentions in this respect, I
+cannot now say.  I only remember, that more than once O'Leary whispered
+to me something like a caution of some sort or other; but Emily's
+encouraging smiles and still more encouraging speeches had far more
+effect upon me than all the eloquence of the united service, had it been
+engaged in my behalf, would have effected.  Mrs. Bingham, too--who, to do
+her justice, seemed but little cognisant of our proceedings--from time to
+time evinced that species of motherly satisfaction which very young men
+rejoice much in, and older ones are considerably alarmed at.
+
+The play over O'Leary charged himself with the protection of madam,
+while I enveloped Emily in her cachmere, and drew her arm within my own.
+What my hand had to do with her's I know not; it remains one of the
+unexplained difficulties of that eventful evening.  I have, it is true,
+a hazy recollection of pressing some very taper and delicately formed
+finger--and remember, too, the pain I felt next morning on awaking, by
+the pressure of a too tight ring, which had, by some strange accident,
+found its way to my finger, for which its size was but ill adapted.
+
+"You will join us at supper, I hope," said Mrs. Bingham, as Trevanion
+handed her to her carriage.  "Mr. Lorrequer, Mr. O'Leary, we shall expect
+you."
+
+I was about to promise to do so, when Trevanion, suddenly interrupted
+me, saying that he had already accepted an invitation, which would,
+unfortunately, prevent us; and having hastily wished the ladies good
+night, hurried me away so abruptly, that I had not a moment given for
+even one parting look at the fair Emily.
+
+"Why, Trevanion," said I, "what invitation are you dreaming of?  I, for
+one, should have been delighted to have gone home with the Binghams."
+
+"So I perceived," said Trevanion, gravely; "and it was for that precise
+reason I so firmly refused what, individually, I should have been most
+happy to accept."
+
+"Then, pray, have the goodness to explain."
+
+"It is easily done.  You have already, in recounting your manifold
+embarrassments, told me enough of these people, to let me see that they
+intend you should marry among them; and, indeed, you have gone quite far
+enough to encourage such an expectation.  Your present excited state has
+led you sufficiently far this evening, and I could not answer for your
+not proposing in all form before the supper was over; therefore, I had no
+other course open to me than positively to refuse Mrs. Bingham's
+invitation.  But here we are now at the 'Cadran rouge;' we shall have our
+lobster and a glass of Moselle, and then to bed, for we must not forget
+that we are to be at St. Cloud by seven."
+
+"Ah! that is a good thought of yours about the lobster," said O'Leary;
+"and now, as you understand these matters, just order supper, and let us
+enjoy ourselves."
+
+With all the accustomed despatch of a restaurant, a most appetizing petit
+souper made its speedy appearance; and although now perfectly divested of
+the high excitement which had hitherto possessed me, my spirits were
+excellent, and I never more relished our good fare and good fellowship.
+
+After a full bumper to the health of the fair Emily had been proposed and
+drained by all three, Trevanion again explained how much more serious
+difficulty would result from any false step in that quarter than from all
+my other scrapes collectively.
+
+This he represented so strongly, that for the first time I began to
+perceive the train of ill consequences that must inevitably result, and
+promised most faithfully to be guided by any counsel he might feel
+disposed to give me.
+
+"Ah! what a pity," said O'Leary, "it is not my case.  It's very little
+trouble it would cost any one to break off a match for me.  I had always
+a most peculiar talent for those things.
+
+"Indeed!" said Trevanion.  "Pray, may we know your secret? for, perhaps,
+ere long we may have occasion for its employment."
+
+"Tell it, by all means," said I.
+
+"If I do," said O'Leary, "it will cost you a patient hearing; for my
+experiences are connected with two episodes in my early life, which,
+although not very amusing, are certainly instructive."
+
+"Oh! by all means, let us hear them," said Trevanion; "for we have yet
+two bottles of chambertin left, and must finish them ere we part."
+
+"Well, agreed," said O'Leary; "only, once for all, as what I am about to
+confide is strictly confidential, you must promise never even to allude
+to it hereafter in even the most remote manner, much less indulge in any
+unseemly mirth at what I shall relate."
+
+Having pledged ourselves to secrecy and a becoming seriousness, O'Leary
+began his story as follows:--
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+MR. O'LEARY'S FIRST LOVE.
+
+"It was during the vice-royalty of the late Duke of Richmond that the
+incidents I am about to mention took place.  That was a few years since,
+and I was rather younger, and a little more particular about my dress
+than at present."  Here the little man cast an eye of stoical
+satisfaction upon his uncouth habiliments, that nearly made us forget our
+compact, and laugh outright.  "Well, in those wild and headstrong days of
+youthful ardour, I fell in love--desperately in love--and as always is, I
+believe, the case with our early experiments in that unfortunate passion,
+the object of my affection was in every way unsuited to me.  She was a
+tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed maiden, with a romantic imagination, and a
+kind of a half-crazed poetic fervour, that often made me fear for her
+intellect.  I'm a short, rather fat--I was always given this way"--here
+he patted a waistcoat that would fit Dame Lambert--"happy-minded little
+fellow, that liked my supper of oysters at the Pigeon-house, and my other
+creature-comforts, and hated every thing that excited or put one out of
+one's way, just as I would have hated a blister.  Then, the devil would
+have it--for as certainly as marriages are made in heaven, flirtations
+have something to say to the other place--that I should fall most
+irretrievably in love with Lady Agnes Moreton.  Bless my soul, it
+absolutely puts me in a perspiration this hot day, just to think over all
+I went through on her account; for, strange to say, the more I appeared
+to prosper in her good graces, the more did she exact on my part; the
+pursuit was like Jacob's ladder--if it did lead to heaven it was
+certainly an awfully long journey, and very hard on one's legs.  There
+was not an amusement she could think of, no matter how unsuited to my
+tastes or my abilities, that she did not immediately take a violent fancy
+to; and then there was no escaping, and I was at once obliged to go with
+the tide, and heaven knows if it would not have carried me to my grave if
+it were not for the fortunate (I now call it) accident that broke off the
+affair for ever.  One time she took a fancy for yachting, and all the
+danglers about her--and she always had a cordon of them--young
+aides-de-camp of her father the general, and idle hussars, in clanking
+sabertasches and most absurd mustachios--all approved of the taste, and
+so kept filling her mind with anecdotes of corsairs and smugglers, that
+at last nothing would satisfy her till I--I who always would rather have
+waited for low water, and waded the Liffey in all its black mud, than
+cross over in the ferry-boat, for fear of sickness--I was obliged to put
+an advertisement in the newspaper for a pleasure-boat, and, before three
+weeks, saw myself owner of a clinker-built schooner, of forty-eight tons,
+that by some mockery of fortune was called 'The Delight.'  I wish you saw
+me, as you might have done every morning for about a month, as I stood on
+the Custom-house quay, giving orders for the outfit of the little craft.
+At first, as she bobbed and pitched with the flood-tide, I used to be a
+little giddy and rather qualmish, but at last I learned to look on
+without my head reeling.  I began to fancy myself very much of a sailor,
+a delusion considerably encouraged by a huge P. jacket and a sou'-wester,
+both of which, though it was in the dog-days, Agnes insisted upon my
+wearing, saying I looked more like Dirk Hatteraick, who, I understood,
+was one of her favourite heroes in Walter Scott.  In fact, after she
+suggested this, she and all her friends called me nothing but Dirk.
+
+"Well, at last, after heaven knows how many excuses on my part, and
+entreaties for delay, a day was appointed for our first excursion.  I
+shall never forget that day--the entire night before it I did not close
+my eyes; the skipper had told me in his confounded sea-jargon, that if
+the wind was in one quarter we should have a short tossing sea; and if in
+another a long rolling swell; and if in a third, a happy union of both
+--in fact, he made it out that it could not possibly blow right, an
+opinion I most heartily coincided in, and most devoutly did I pray for a
+calm, that would not permit of our stirring from our moorings, and thus
+mar our projected party of pleasure.  My prayer was unheard, but my hopes
+rose on the other hand, for it blew tremendously during the entire night,
+and although there was a lull towards morning, the sea, even in the
+river, was considerable.
+
+"I had just come to the conclusion that I was safe for this time, when
+the steward poked his head into the room and said,
+
+"'Mr. Brail wishes to know, sir, if he'll bend the new mainsail to-day,
+as it's blowing rather fresh, and he thinks the spars light.'
+
+"'Why the devil take him, he would not have us go out in a hurricane;
+surely, Pipes, we could not take out ladies to-day?'
+
+"'O, bless your heart, yes, sir; it blows a bit to be sure, but she's a
+good sea-boat, and we can run for Arklow or the Hook, if it comes
+fresher.'
+
+"'Oh, nonsense, there's no pleasure in that; besides I'm sure they won't
+like it--the ladies won't venture, you'll see.'
+
+"'Ay sir, but they're all on board already: there's eight ladies in the
+cabin, and six on deck, and as many hampers of victuals and as much
+crockery as if we were a-goin' to Madeira.  Captain Grantham, sir, the
+soldier officer, with the big beard, is a mixing punch in the grog-tub.'
+
+"'From the consequences of this day I proclaim myself innocent,' said I
+with a solemn voice, as I drew on my duck trowsers, and prepared to set
+out.
+
+"'And the mainsail, sir,' said the steward, not understanding what I
+said.
+
+"'I care not which,' said I, doggedly; 'act or part in this wilful
+proceeding I'll not take.'
+
+"'Ay, ay, sir,' said the stupid wretch, 'then I'll say you're coming, and
+he may stretch the large canvas; for the skipper says he likes a wet
+jacket when he has gentlemen out.'
+
+"Never did a victim put on a flame-coloured garment, the emblem of fate,
+and set out on the march of death, with a heavier heart, than did I put
+on my pilot-coat that morning to join my friends.
+
+"My last hope deserted me as I saw the little vessel lying beside the
+quay; for I continued to trust that in getting out from the dock some
+accident or mischance might occur to spoil our sport.  But no; there she
+lay, rolling and pitching in such a way that, even at anchor, they could
+not stand on the deck without holding.  Amid the torrent of compliments
+for the perfection of all my arrangements, and innumerable sweet things
+on my taste in the decoration and fitting up of my cabin, I scarcely felt
+myself afloat for some minutes, and we got under weigh amid a noise and
+uproar that absolutely prevented the possibility of thought.
+
+"Hitherto our destination had not been mentioned, and as all the party
+appealed to Lady Agnes, I could not be less gallant, and joined them in
+their request.
+
+"'Well then, what do you think of Lambay?' said she, looking at the same
+moment towards the skipper.
+
+"'We can make it, my lady,' said the man, 'but we'll have a roughish sea
+of it, for there's a strong point of westward in the wind.'
+
+"'Then don't think of it,' said I.  'We have come out for pleasure, not
+to make our friends sick, or terrify them.  It does very well for us
+men.'
+
+"'There you are, Dirk, with your insolent sneers about women's nerves and
+female cowardice.  Now, nothing but Lambay will content me--what say you,
+ladies?'
+
+"A general reply of approval met this speech, and it was carried by
+acclamation.
+
+"'Lambay then be it,' said I, with the voice of a man, who, entreating to
+be shot, is informed that he cannot be afforded that pleasure, as his
+sentence is to be hanged.  But I must hasten over these painful
+recollections.  We dropped down the river, and soon left the light-house
+and its long pier behind us, the mast bending like a whip, and the sea
+boiling like barm over the lee gunwale.  Still the spirit of our party
+only rose the lighter, and nothing but eulogies upon the men and sailing
+of the craft resounded on all sides; the din and buz of the conversation
+went on only more loudly and less restrictedly than if the party had been
+on shore, and all, even myself, seemed happy, for up to this moment I had
+not been sea-sick, yet certain pleasant sensations, that alternately
+evinced themselves in my stomach and my head, warned me of what was in
+store for me.  The word was now given to tack; I was in the act of
+essaying a soft speech to Lady Agnes, when the confounded cry of 'ready
+about, starboard there, let go sheets and tacks, stand by, hawl.'  The
+vessel plunged head-foremost into the boiling sea, which hissed on either
+bow; the heavy boom swung over, carrying my hat along with it--and almost
+my head too.  The rest of the party, possibly better informed than
+myself, speedily changed their places to the opposite side of the boat,
+while I remained holding off fast by the gunwale, till the sea rushing
+over, what was now becoming the lee-side, carried me head over heels into
+the shingle ballast in the waist.  Lord, how they did laugh!  Agnes, too,
+who never before could get beyond a very faint smile, grew almost
+hysterical at my performance.  As for me, I only wanted this to complete
+my long threatened misfortune; sea sickness in all its most miserable
+forms, set in upon me, and, ere half an hour, I lay upon that heap of
+small stones, as indifferent to all round and about me as though I were
+dead.  Oh, the long, dreary hours of that melancholy day; it seemed like
+a year.  They tacked and tacked, they were beat and tacked again, the sea
+washing over me, and the ruffianly sailors trampling upon me without the
+slightest remorse, whenever they had any occasion to pass back or
+forward.  From my long trance of suffering I was partly roused by the
+steward shaking my shoulder, saying,
+
+"'The gentlemen wish to know, sir, if you'd like summat to eat, as
+they're a goin' to have a morsel; we are getting into slack water now.'
+
+"'Where are we?' I replied, in a sepulchral voice.
+
+"'Off the Hook, sir; we have had a most splendid run, but I fear we'll
+catch it soon; there's some dirty weather to the westward.'
+
+"'God grant it,' said I, piously and in a low tone.
+
+"'Did you say you'd have a bit to eat. Sir?'
+
+"'No!--eat!--am I a cannibal?--eat--go away--mark me, my good fellow,
+I'll pay you your wages, if ever we get ashore; you'll never set another
+foot aboard with me.'
+
+"The man looked perfectly astounded as he moved away, and my thoughts
+were soon engrossed by the proceedings near me.  The rattle of knives,
+and the jingling of plates and glasses went on very briskly for some
+time, accompanied by various pleasant observations of my guests, for such
+I judged them, from the mirth which ever followed them.  At last I
+thought I heard my name, or at least what they pleased to use as its
+substitute, mentioned; I strained my ears to listen, and learnt that they
+were planning to talk over the pretended intention to run for Cowes, and
+see the regatta.  This they discussed then, for about twenty minutes, in
+a very loud voice, purposely to see its effects upon me; but as I was now
+aware of the trick, I gave no sign of any intelligence.
+
+"'Poor Dirk,' said Grantham; 'I believe by this time he cares very little
+which way her head lies; but here comes something better than all our
+discussions.  Lady Agnes, sit here--Miss Pelham, here's a dry cushion for
+you--did you say a wing, Lady Mary?'
+
+"Now began the crash and clatter of dinner; champagne corks popping,
+glasses ringing, and all that peculiar admixture of fracas and fun, which
+accompanies a scrambled meal.  How they did laugh, and eat, ay, and drink
+too.  G's punch seemed to have its success, for sick as I was, I could
+perceive the voices of the men grow gradually louder, and discovered that
+two gentlemen who had been remarkably timid in the morning, and scarcely
+opened their lips, were now rather uproariously given, and one even
+proposed to sing.
+
+"If any man, thought I, were to look for an instant at the little scene
+now enacting here, what a moral might he reap from it; talk of the base
+ingratitude of the world, you cannot say too much of it.  Who would
+suppose that it was my boat these people were assembled in; that it was
+my champagne these people were drinking; that my venison and my pheasants
+were feeding those lips, which rarely spoke, except to raise a jest at my
+expense.  My chagrin increased my sickness and my sickness redoubled my
+chagrin.
+
+"'Mr. Brail,' said I, in a low whisper, 'Mr. Brail.'
+
+"'Did you speak, sir?' said he, with about as much surprise in his
+manner, as though he had been addressed by a corpse.
+
+"'Mr. Brail,' said I, 'is there any danger here?'
+
+"'Lord love you, no, sir, she's walking Spanish, and the sea going down;
+we shall have lovely weather, and they're all enjoying it, sir,--the
+ladies.'
+
+"'So I perceive,' said I, with a groan; 'so I perceive; but Mr. Brail,
+could you do nothing--just to--to startle them a little, I mean for fun
+only?  Just ship a heavy sea or two, I don't care for a little damage,
+Mr. Brail, and if it were to wash over the dinner-service, and all the
+wine, I should not like it worse.'
+
+"'Why, sir, you are getting quite funny, the sickness is going.'
+
+"'No, Mr. Brail, worse than ever; my head is in two pieces, and my
+stomach in the back of my mouth; but I should like you to do this--so
+just manage it, will you, and there's twenty pounds in my pocket-book,
+you can have it; there now, won't you oblige me, and hark ye, Mr. Brail
+--if Captain Grantham were to be washed over by mere accident it cannot
+be helped; accidents are always occurring in boating parties.  Go now,
+you know what I mean.'
+
+"'But sir,' began he.
+
+"'Well, then, Mr. Brail, you won't--very well: now all I have to say is
+this: that the moment I can find strength to do it, I'll stave out a
+plank; I'll scuttle the vessel, that's all; I have made up my mind, and
+look to yourselves now.'
+
+"Saying these words, I again threw myself upon the ballast, and, as the
+gay chorus of a drinking song was wafted across me, prayed devoutly that
+we might all go down to the bottom.  The song over, I heard a harsh,
+gruff voice mixing with the more civilized tones of the party, and soon
+perceived that Mr. Brail was recounting my proposal amid the most
+uproarious shouts of laughter I ever listened to.  Then followed a number
+of pleasant suggestions for my future management; one proposing to have
+me tried for mutiny, and sentenced to a ducking over the side, another
+that I should be tarred on my back, to which latter most humane notion,
+the fair Agnes subscribed, averring that she was resolved upon my
+deserving my sobriquet of Dirk Hatteraick.  My wrath was now the master
+even of deadly sickness.  I got upon my knees, and having in vain tried
+to reach my legs, I struggled aft.  In this posture did I reach the
+quarter-deck.  What my intention precisely was in this excursion, I have
+no notion of now, but I have some very vague idea, that I meant to
+re-enact the curse of Kehama upon the whole party.  At last I mustered
+strength to rise; but alas! I had scarcely reached the standing position,
+when a tremendous heel of the boat to one side, threw me in the gunwale,
+and before I was able to recover my balance, a second lurch pitched me
+headlong into the sea.  I have, thank God, no further recollection of my
+misfortunes.  When I again became conscious, I found myself wrapped up in
+a pilot-coat, while my clothes were drying: the vessel was at anchor in
+Wexford.  My attached friends had started for town with post-horses,
+leaving me no less cured of love than aquatics.
+
+"'The Delight' passed over in a few days, to some more favoured son of
+Neptune, and I hid my shame and my misfortunes by a year's tour on the
+continent."
+
+"Although I acknowledge," said Trevanion, "that hitherto I have reaped no
+aid from Mr. O'Leary's narrative, yet I think it is not without a moral."
+
+"Well, but," said I, "he has got another adventure to tell us; we have
+quite time for it, so pray pass the wine and let us have it."
+
+"I have just finished the burgundy," said O'Leary, "and if you will ring
+for another flask, I have no objection to let you hear the story of my
+second love."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+MR. O'LEARY'S SECOND LOVE.
+
+"You may easily suppose," began Mr. O'Leary, "that the unhappy
+termination of my first passion served as a shield to me for a long time
+against my unfortunate tendencies towards the fair; and such was really
+the case.  I never spoke to a young lady for three years after, without a
+reeling in my head, so associated in my mind was love and sea-sickness.
+However, at last what will not time do.  It was about four years from the
+date of this adventure, when I became so, from oblivion of my former
+failure, as again to tempt my fortune.  My present choice, in every way
+unlike the last, was a gay, lively girl, of great animal spirits, and a
+considerable turn for raillery, that spared no one; the members of her
+own family were not even sacred in her eyes; and her father, a reverend
+dean, as frequently figured among the ludicrous as his neighbours.
+
+"The Evershams had been very old friends of a rich aunt of mine, who
+never, by the by, had condescended to notice me till I made their
+acquaintance; but no sooner had I done so, than she sent for me, and gave
+me to understand that in the event of my succeeding to the hand of Fanny
+Eversham, I should be her heir, and the possessor of about sixty thousand
+pounds.  She did not stop here; but by canvassing the dean in my favour,
+speedily put the matter on a most favourable footing, and in less than
+two months I was received as the accepted suitor of the fair Fanny, then
+one of the reigning belles of Dublin.
+
+"They lived at this time about three miles from town, in a very pretty
+country, where I used to pass all my mornings, and many of my evenings
+too, in a state of happiness that I should have considered perfect, if
+it were not for two unhappy blots--one, the taste of my betrothed for
+laughing at her friends; another the diabolical propensity to talk
+politics of my intended father-in-law--to the former I could submit; but
+with the latter, submission only made bad worse; for he invariably drew
+up as I receded, drily observing that with men who had no avowed
+opinions, it was ill agreeing; or that, with persons who kept their
+politics as a school-boy does his pocket-money, never to spend, and
+always ready to change, it was unpleasant to dispute.  Such taunts as
+these I submitted to as well as I might; secretly resolving, that as I
+now knew the meaning of whig and tory, I'd contrive to spend my life,
+after marriage, out of the worthy dean's diocese.
+
+"Time wore on, and at length, to my most pressing solicitations, it was
+conceded that a day for our marriage should be appointed.  Not even the
+unlucky termination of this my second love affair can deprive me of the
+happy souvenir of the few weeks which were to intervene before our
+destined union.
+
+"The mornings were passed in ransacking all the shops where wedding
+finery could be procured--laces, blondes, velvets, and satins, littered
+every corner of the deanery--and there was scarcely a carriage in a
+coach-maker's yard in the city that I had not sat and jumped in, to try
+the springs, by the special directions of Mrs. Eversham; who never ceased
+to impress me with the awful responsibility I was about to take upon me,
+in marrying so great a prize as her daughter--a feeling I found very
+general among many of my friends at the Kildare-street club.
+
+"Among the many indispensable purchases which I was to make, and about
+which Fanny expressed herself more than commonly anxious, was a
+saddle-horse for me.  She was a great horsewoman, and hated riding with
+only a servant; and had given me to understand as much about half-a-dozen
+times each day for the last five weeks.  How shall I acknowledge it
+--equestrianism was never my forte.  I had all my life considerable
+respect for the horse as an animal, pretty much as I dreaded a lion or a
+tiger; but as to my intention of mounting upon the back of one, and
+taking a ride, I should as soon have dreamed of taking an airing upon a
+giraffe; and as to the thought of buying, feeding, and maintaining such a
+beast at my own proper cost, I should just as soon have determined to
+purchase a pillory or a ducking-stool, by way of amusing my leisure
+hours.
+
+"However, Fanny was obstinate--whether she suspected any thing or not I
+cannot say--but nothing seemed to turn her from her purpose; and although
+I pleaded a thousand things in delay, yet she each day grew more
+impatient, and at last I saw that there was nothing for it but to submit.
+
+"When I arrived at this last and bold resolve, I could not help feeling
+that to possess a horse and not be able to mount him, was only deferring
+the ridicule; and as I had so often expressed the difficulty I felt in
+suiting myself as a cause of my delay, I could not possibly come forward
+with any thing very objectionable, or I should be only the more laughed
+at.  There was then but one course to take; a fortnight still intervened
+before the day which was to make me happy, and I accordingly resolved to
+take lessons in riding during the intervals, and by every endeavour in my
+power become, if possible, able to pass muster on the saddle before my
+bride.
+
+"Poor old Lalouette understood but little of the urgency of the case,
+when I requested his leave to take my lessons each morning at six
+o'clock, for I dared not absent myself during the day without exciting
+suspicion; and never, I will venture to assert, did knight-errant of old
+strive harder for the hand of his lady-love than did I during that weary
+fortnight, if a hippogriff had been the animal I bestrode, instead of
+being, as it was, an old wall-eyed grey, I could not have felt more
+misgivings at my temerity, or more proud of my achievement.  In the first
+three days the unaccustomed exercise proved so severe, that when I
+reached the deanery I could hardly move, and crossed the floor, pretty
+much as a pair of compasses might be supposed to do if performing that
+exploit.  Nothing, however, could equal the kindness of my poor dear
+mother-in-law in embryo, and even the dean too.  Fanny, indeed, said
+nothing; but I rather think she was disposed to giggle a little; but my
+rheumatism, as it was called, was daily inquired after, and I was
+compelled to take some infernal stuff in my port wine at dinner that
+nearly made me sick at table.
+
+"'I am sure you walk too much,' said Fanny, with one of her knowing
+looks.  'Papa, don't you think he ought to ride; it would be much better
+for him.'
+
+"'I do, my dear,' said the dean.  'But then you see he is so hard to be
+pleased in a horse.  Your old hunting days have spoiled you; but you must
+forget Melton and Grantham, and condescend to keep a hack.'
+
+"I must have looked confoundedly foolish here, for Fanny never took her
+eyes off me, and continued to laugh in her own wicked way.
+
+"It was now about the ninth or tenth day of my purgatorial performances;
+and certainly if there be any merit in fleshly mortifications, these
+religious exercises of mine should stand my part hereafter.  A review had
+been announced in the Phoenix-park, which Fanny had expressed herself
+most desirous to witness; and as the dean would not permit her to go
+without a chaperon, I had no means of escape, and promised to escort her.
+No sooner had I made this rash pledge, than I hastened to my confidential
+friend, Lalouette, and having imparted to him my entire secret, asked him
+in a solemn and imposing manner, 'Can I do it?'  The old man shook his
+head dubiously, looked grave, and muttered at length, 'Mosch depend on de
+horse.'  'I know it--I know it--I feel it,' said I eagerly--'then where
+are we to find an animal that will carry me peaceably through this awful
+day--I care not for his price?'
+
+"'Votre affaire ne sera pas trop chere,' said he.
+
+"'Why.  How do you mean?' said I.
+
+"He then proceeded to inform me, that by a singularly fortunate chance,
+there took place that day an auction of 'cast horses,' as they are
+termed, which had been used in the horse police force; and that from long
+riding, and training to stand fire, nothing could be more suitable than
+one of these; being both easy to ride, and not given to start at noise.
+
+"I could have almost hugged the old fellow for his happy suggestion, and
+waited with impatience for three o'clock to come, when we repaired
+together to Essex-bridge, at that time the place selected for these
+sales.
+
+"I was at first a little shocked at the look of the animals drawn up;
+they were most miserably thin--most of them swelled in the legs--few
+without sore backs--and not one eye, on an average, in every three; but
+still they were all high steppers, and carried a great tail.  'There's
+your affaire,' said the old Frenchman, as a long-legged fiddle-headed
+beast was led out; turning out his forelegs so as to endanger the man who
+walked beside him.
+
+"'Yes, there's blood for you, said Charley Dycer, seeing my eye fixed on
+the wretched beast; 'equal to fifteen stone with any foxhounds; safe in
+all his paces, and warranted sound; except,' added he, in a whisper, 'a
+slight spavin in both hind legs, ring gone, and a little touched in the
+wind.'  Here the animal gave an approving cough.  'Will any gentleman say
+fifty pounds to begin?'  But no gentleman did.  A hackney coachman,
+however, said five, and the sale was opened; the beast trotting up and
+down nearly over the bidders at every moment, and plunging on so that it
+was impossible to know what was doing.
+
+"'Five, ten--fifteen--six pounds--thank you, sir,--guineas'--'seven
+pounds,' said I, bidding against myself, not perceiving that I had spoken
+last.  'Thank you, Mr. Moriarty,' said Dycer, turning towards an
+invisible purchaser supposed to be in the crowd.  'Thank you, sir, you'll
+not let a good one go that way.'  Every one here turned to find out the
+very knowing gentleman; but he could no where be seen.
+
+"Dycer resumed, 'Seven ten for Mr. Moriarty.  Going for seven ten--a
+cruel sacrifice--there's action for you--playful beast.'  Here the devil
+had stumbled and nearly killed a basket-woman with two children.
+
+"'Eight,' said I, with a loud voice.
+
+"'Eight pounds, quite absurd,' said Dycer, almost rudely; 'a charger like
+that for eight pounds--going for eight pounds--going--nothing above eight
+pounds--no reserve, gentlemen, you are aware of that.  They are all as it
+were, his majesty's stud--no reserve whatever--last time, eight pounds
+--gone.'
+
+"Amid a very hearty cheer from the mob--God knows why--but a Dublin mob
+always cheer--I returned, accompanied by a ragged fellow, leading my new
+purchase after me with a bay halter.  'What is the meaning of those
+letters,' said I, pointing to a very conspicuous G.R. with sundry other
+enigmatical signs, burned upon the animal's hind quarter.
+
+"'That's to show he was a po-lice,' said the fellow with a grin; 'and
+whin ye ride with ladies, ye must turn the decoy side.'
+
+"The auspicious morning at last arrived; and strange to say that the
+first waking thought was of the unlucky day that ushered in my yachting
+excursion, four years before.  Why this was so, I cannot pretend to
+guess; there was but little analogy in the circumstances, at least so far
+as any thing had then gone.  'How is Marius?' said I to my servant, as he
+opened my shutters.  Here let me mention that a friend of the
+Kildare-street club had suggested this name from the remarkably classic
+character of my steed's countenance; his nose, he assured me, was
+perfectly Roman.
+
+"'Marius is doing finely, sir, barring his cough, and the thrifle that
+ails his hind legs.'
+
+"'He'll carry me quietly, Simon, eh?'
+
+"'Quietly.  I'll warrant he'll carry you quietly, if that's all.'
+
+"Here was comfort.  Certainly Simon had lived forty years as pantry boy
+with my mother, and knew a great deal about horses.  I dressed myself,
+therefore, in high spirits; and if my pilot jacket and oil-skin cap in
+former days had half persuaded me that I was born for marine
+achievements, certainly my cords and tops, that morning, went far to
+convince me that I must have once been a very keen sportsman somewhere,
+without knowing it.  It was a delightful July day that I set out to join
+my friends, who having recruited a large party, were to rendezvous at the
+corner of Stephen's-green; thither I proceeded in a certain ambling trot,
+which I have often observed is a very favourite pace with timid horsemen,
+and gentlemen of the medical profession.  I was hailed with a most hearty
+welcome by a large party as I turned out of Grafton-street, among whom I
+perceived several friends of Miss Eversham, and some young dragoon
+officers, not of my acquaintance, but who appeared to know Fanny
+intimately, and were laughing heartily with her as I rode up.
+
+"I don't know if other men have experienced what I am about to mention or
+not; but certainly to me there is no more painful sensation than to find
+yourself among a number of well-mounted, well-equipped people, while the
+animal you yourself bestride seems only fit for the kennel. Every look
+that is cast at your unlucky steed--every whispered observation about you
+are so many thorns in your flesh, till at last you begin to feel that
+your appearance is for very little else than the amusement and mirth of
+the assembly; and every time you rise in your stirrups you excite a
+laugh.
+
+"'Where for mercy's sake did you find that creature?' said Fanny,
+surveying Marius through her glass.
+
+"'Oh, him, eh?  Why he is a handsome horse, if in condition--a charger
+your know--that's his style.'
+
+"'Indeed,' lisped a young lancer, 'I should be devilish sorry to charge
+or be charged with him.'  And here they all chuckled at this puppy's
+silly joke, and I drew up to repress further liberties.
+
+"'Is he anything of a fencer?' said a young country gentleman.
+
+"'To judge from his near eye, I should say much more of a boxer,' said
+another.
+
+"Here commenced a running fire of pleasantry at the expense of my poor
+steed; which, not content with attacking his physical, extended to his
+moral qualities.  An old gentleman near me observing, 'that I ought not
+to have mounted him at all, seeing he was so damned groggy;' to which I
+replied, by insinuating, that if others present were as free from the
+influence of ardent spirits, society would not be a sufferer; an
+observation that I flatter myself turned the mirth against the old
+fellow, for they all laughed for a quarter of an hour after.
+
+"Well, at last we set out in a brisk trot, and, placed near Fanny, I
+speedily forgot all my annoyances in the prospect of figuring to
+advantage before her.  When we reached College-green the leaders of the
+cortege suddenly drew up, and we soon found that the entire street
+opposite the Bank was filled with a dense mob of people, who appeared to
+be swayed hither and thither, like some mighty beast, as the individuals
+composing it were engaged in close conflict.  It was nothing more nor
+less than one of those almost weekly rows, which then took place between
+the students of the University and the town's-people, and which rarely
+ended without serious consequences.  The numbers of people pressing on to
+the scene of action soon blocked up our retreat, and we found ourselves
+most unwilling spectators of the conflict.  Political watch-words were
+loudly shouted by each party; and at last the students, who appeared to
+be yielding to superior numbers, called out for the intervention of the
+police.  The aid was nearer than they expected; for at the same instant a
+body of mounted policemen, whose high helmets rendered them sufficiently
+conspicuous, were seen trotting at a sharp pace down Dame-street.  On
+they came with drawn sabres, led by a well-looking gentlemanlike
+personage in plain clothes, who dashed at once into the midst of the
+fray, issuing his orders, and pointing out to his followers to secure the
+ringleaders.  Up to this moment I had been a most patient, and rather
+amused spectator, of what was doing.  Now, however, my part was to
+commence, for at the word 'charge,' given in a harsh, deep voice by the
+sergeant of the party, Marius, remembering his ancient instinct, pricked
+up his ears, cocked his tail, flung up both his hind legs till they
+nearly broke the Provost's windows, and plunged into the thickest of the
+fray like a devil incarnate.
+
+"Self-preservation must be a strong instinct, for I well remember how
+little pain it cost me to see the people tumbling and rolling before and
+beneath me, while I continued to keep my seat.  It was only the moment
+before and that immense mass were in man to man encounter; now all the
+indignation of both parties seemed turned upon me; brick-bats were loudly
+implored, and paving stones begged to throw at my devoted head; the wild
+huntsman of the German romance never created half the terror, nor
+one-tenth of the mischief that I did in less than fifteen minutes, for
+the ill-starred beast continued twining and twisting like a serpent,
+plunging and kicking the entire time, and occasionally biting too; all
+which accomplishments I afterwards learned, however little in request in
+civil life, are highly prized in the horse police.
+
+"Every new order of the sergeant was followed in his own fashion by
+Marius; who very soon contrived to concentrate in my unhappy person, all
+the interest of about fifteen hundred people.
+
+"'Secure that scoundrel,' said the magistrate, pointing with his finger
+towards me, as I rode over a respectable looking old lady, with a grey
+muff.  'Secure him.  Cut him down.'
+
+"'Ah, devil's luck to him, if ye do,' said a newsmonger with a broken
+shin.
+
+"On I went, however, and now, as the Fates would have it, instead of
+bearing me out of further danger, the confounded brute dashed onwards to
+where the magistrate was standing, surrounded by policemen.  I thought I
+saw him change colour as I came on.  I suppose my own looks were none of
+the pleasantest, for the worthy man liked them not.  Into the midst of
+them we plunged, upsetting a corporal, horse and all, and appearing as if
+bent upon reaching the alderman.
+
+"'Cut him down for heaven's sake.  Will nobody shoot him' said he, with a
+voice trembling with fear and anger.
+
+"At these words a wretch lifted up his sabre, and made a cut at my head.
+I stooped suddenly, and throwing myself from the saddle, seized the poor
+alderman round the neck, and we both came rolling to the ground together.
+So completely was he possessed with the notion that I meant to
+assassinate him, that while I was endeavouring to extricate myself from
+his grasp, he continued to beg his life in the most heartrending manner.
+
+"My story is now soon told.  So effectually did they rescue the alderman
+from his danger, that they left me insensible; and I only came to myself
+some days after by finding myself in the dock in Green-street, charged
+with an indictment of nineteen counts; the only word of truth is what lay
+in the preamble, for the 'devil inciting' me only, would ever have made
+me the owner of that infernal beast, the cause of all my misfortunes.  I
+was so stupified from my hearing, that I know little of the course of the
+proceedings.  My friends told me afterwards that I had a narrow escape
+from transportation; but for the greatest influence exerted in my behalf,
+I should certainly have passed the autumn in the agreeable recreation of
+pounding oyster shells or carding wool; and it certainly must have gone
+hard with me, for stupified as I was, I remember the sensation in court,
+when the alderman made his appearance with a patch over his eye.  The
+affecting admonition of the little judge--who, when passing sentence upon
+me, adverted to the former respectability of my life, and the rank of my
+relatives--actually made the galleries weep.
+
+"Four months in Newgate, and a fine to the king, then rewarded my taste
+for horse-exercise; and it's no wonder if I prefer going on foot.
+
+"As to Miss Eversham, the following short note from the dean concluded my
+hopes in that quarter.
+
+     "'Deanery, Wednesday morning.
+
+     "'Sir,--After the very distressing publicity to which your late
+     conduct has exposed you--the so open avowal of political opinion, at
+     variance with those (I will say) of every gentleman--and the
+     recorded sentence of a judge on the verdict of twelve of your
+     countrymen--I should hope that you will not feel my present
+     admonition necessary to inform you, that your visits at my house
+     shall cease.
+
+     "'The presents you made my daughter, when under our unfortunate
+     ignorance of your real character, have been addressed to your hotel,
+     and I am your most obedient, humble servant,
+
+                                        "'Oliver Eversham.'
+
+
+"Here ended my second affair 'par amours;' and I freely confess to you
+that if I can only obtain a wife in a sea voyage, or a steeple chase, I
+am likely to fulfill one great condition in modern advertising--'as
+having no incumbrance, or any objection to travel.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE DUEL.
+
+Mr. O'Leary had scarcely concluded the narrative of his second adventure,
+when the grey light of the breaking day was seen faintly struggling
+through the half-closed curtains, and apprising us of the lateness of the
+hour.
+
+"I think we shall just have time for one finishing flask of Chambertin,"
+said O'Leary, as he emptied the bottle into his glass.
+
+"I forbid the bans, for one," cried Trevanion.  "We have all had wine
+enough, considering what we have before us this morning; and besides you
+are not aware it is now past four o'clock.  So garcon--garcon, there--how
+soundly the poor fellow sleeps--let us have some coffee, and then inquire
+if a carriage is in waiting at the corner of the Rue Vivienne."
+
+The coffee made its appearance, very much, as it seemed, to Mr. O'Leary's
+chagrin, who, however, solaced himself by sundry petits verres, to
+correct the coldness of the wine he had drank, and at length recovered
+his good humour.
+
+"Do you know, now," said he, after a short pause, in which we had all
+kept silence, "I think what we are about to do, is the very ugliest way
+of finishing a pleasant evening.  For my own part I like the wind up we
+used to have in 'Old Trinity' formerly; when, after wringing off half a
+dozen knockers, breaking the lamps at the post-office, and getting out
+the fire engines of Werburgh's parish, we beat a few watchmen, and went
+peaceably to bed."
+
+"Well, not being an Irishman," said Trevanion, "I'm half disposed to
+think that even our present purpose is nearly as favourable to life and
+limb; but here comes my servant.  Well, John, is all arranged, and the
+carriage ready?"
+
+Having ascertained that the carriage was in waiting, and that the small
+box--brass bound and Bramah-locked--reposed within, we paid our bill and
+departed.  A cold, raw, misty-looking morning, with masses of dark
+louring clouds overhead, and channels of dark and murky water beneath,
+were the pleasant prospects which met us as we issued forth from the
+Cafe.  The lamps, which hung suspended midway across the street, (we
+speak of some years since,) creaked, with a low and plaintive sound, as
+they swung backwards and forwards in the wind.  Not a footstep was heard
+in the street--nothing but the heavy patter of the rain as it fell
+ceaselessly upon the broad pavement.  It was, indeed, a most depressing
+and dispiriting accompaniment to our intended excursion: and even
+O'Leary, who seemed to have but slight sympathy with external influences,
+felt it, for he spoke but little, and was scarcely ten minutes in the
+carriage till he was sound asleep.  This was, I confess, a great relief
+to me; for, however impressed I was, and to this hour am, with the many
+sterling qualitites of my poor friend, yet, I acknowledge, that this was
+not precisely the time I should have cared for their exercise, and would
+have much preferred the companionship of a different order of person,
+even though less long acquainted with him.  Trevanion was, of all others,
+the most suitable for this purpose; and I felt no embarrassment in
+opening my mind freely to him upon subjects which, but twenty-four
+hours previous, I could not have imparted to a brother.
+
+There is no such unlocker of the secrets of the heart as the possibly
+near approach of death.  Indeed, I question if a great deal of the
+bitterness the thought of it inspires, does not depend upon that very
+circumstance.  The reflection that the long-treasured mystery of our
+lives (and who is there without some such?) is about to become known, and
+the secret of our inmost heart laid bare, is in itself depressing.  Not
+one kind word, nor one remembrancing adieu, to those we are to leave for
+ever, can be spoken or written, without calling up its own story of
+half-forgotten griefs or, still worse, at such a moment, of happiness
+never again to be partaken of.
+
+"I cannot explain why," said I to Trevanion, "but although it has
+unfortunately been pretty often my lot to have gone out on occasions
+like this, both as principal and friend, yet never before did I feel so
+completely depressed and low-spirited--and never, in fact, did so many
+thoughts of regret arise before me for much of the past, and sorrow for
+the chance of abandoning the future"--
+
+"I can understand," said Trevanion, interrupting--"I have heard of your
+prospect in the Callonby family, and certainly, with such hopes, I can
+well conceive how little one would be disposed to brook the slightest
+incident which could interfere with their accomplishment; but, now that
+your cousin Guy's pretensions in that quarter are at an end, I suppose,
+from all I have heard, that there can be no great obstacle to yours."
+
+"Guy's pretensions at an end!  For heaven's sake, tell me all you know of
+this affair--for up to this moment I am in utter ignorance of every thing
+regarding his position among the Callonby family."
+
+"Unfortunately," replied Trevanion, "I know but little, but still that
+little is authentic--Guy himself having imparted the secret to a very
+intimate friend of mine.  It appears, then, that your cousin, having
+heard that the Callonbys had been very civil to you in Ireland, and made
+all manner of advances to you--had done so under the impression that you
+were the other nephew of Sir Guy, and consequently the heir of a large
+fortune--that is, Guy himself--and that they had never discovered the
+mistake during the time they resided in Ireland, when they not only
+permitted, but even encouraged the closest intimacy between you and Lady
+Jane.  Is so far true?"
+
+"I have long suspected it.  Indeed in no other way can I account for the
+reception I met with from the Callonbys.  But is it possible that Lady
+Jane could have lent herself to any thing so unworthy."--
+
+"Pray, hear me out," said Trevanion, who was evidently struck by the
+despondency of my voice and manner.  "Guy having heard of their mistake,
+and auguring well to himself from this evidence of their disposition, no
+sooner heard of their arrival in Paris, than he came over here and got
+introduced to them.  From that time he scarcely ever left their house,
+except to accompany them into society, or to the theatres.  It is said
+that with Lady Jane he made no progress.  Her manner, at the beginning
+cold and formal, became daily more so; until, at last, he was half
+disposed to abandon the pursuit--in which, by the by, he has since
+confessed, monied views entered more than any affection for the lady
+--when the thought struck him to benefit by what he supposed at first
+to be the great bar to his success.  He suddenly pretended to be only
+desirous of intimacy with Lady Jane, from having heard so much of her
+from you--affected to be greatly in your confidence--and, in fact,
+assumed the character of a friend cognizant of all your feelings and
+hopes, and ardently desiring, by every means in his power, to advance
+your views--"
+
+"And was it thus he succeeded," I broke in.
+
+"'Twas thus he endeavoured to succeed," said Trevanion.
+
+"Ah, with what success I but too well know" said I.  "My uncle himself
+showed me a letter from Guy, in which he absolutely speaks of the affair
+as settled, and talks of Lady Jane as about to be his wife."
+
+"That may be all quite true; but a little consideration of Guy's tactics
+will show what he intended; for I find that he induced your uncle, by
+some representations of his, to make the most handsome proposals, with
+regard to the marriage, to the Callonbys; and that, to make the story
+short, nothing but the decided refusal of Lady Jane, who at length saw
+through his entire game prevented the match."
+
+"And then she did refuse him," said I, with ill-repressed exultation.
+
+"Of that there can be no doubt; for independently of all the gossip and
+quizzing upon the subject, to which Guy was exposed in the coteries, he
+made little secret of it himself--openly avowing that he did not consider
+a repulse a defeat, and that he resolved to sustain the siege as
+vigorously as ever."
+
+However interested I felt in all Trevanion was telling me, I could not
+help falling into a train of thinking on my first acquaintance with the
+Callonbys.  There are, perhaps, but few things more humiliating than the
+knowledge that any attention or consideration we have met with, has been
+paid us in mistake for another; and in the very proportion that they were
+prized before, are they detested when the truth is known to us.
+
+To all the depressing influences these thoughts suggested, came the
+healing balm that Lady Jane was true to me--that she, at least, however
+others might be biassed by worldly considerations--that she cared for me
+--for myself alone.  My reader (alas! for my character for judgment)
+knows upon how little I founded the conviction; but I have often, in
+these Confessions, avowed my failing, par excellence, to be a great taste
+for self-deception; and here was a capital occasion for its indulgence.
+
+"We shall have abundant time to discuss this later on," said Trevanion,
+laying his hand upon my shoulder to rouse my wandering attention--"for
+now, I perceive, we have only eight minutes to spare."
+
+As he spoke, a dragoon officer, in an undress, rode up to the window of
+the carriage, and looking steadily at our party for a few seconds, asked
+if we were "Messieurs les Anglais;" and, almost without waiting for
+reply, added, "You had better not go any farther in your carriage, for the
+next turn of the road will bring you in sight of the village."
+
+We accordingly stopped the driver, and having (with) some difficulty
+aroused O'Leary, got out upon the road.  The militaire here gave his
+horse to a groom, and proceeded to guide us through a corn-field by a
+narrow path, with whose windings and crossings he appeared quite
+conversant.  We at length reached the brow of a little hill, from which
+an extended view of the country lay before us, showing the Seine winding
+its tranquil course between the richly tilled fields, dotted with many a
+pretty cottage.  Turning abruptly from this point, our guide led us, by a
+narrow and steep path, into a little glen, planted with poplar and
+willows.  A small stream ran through this, and by the noise we soon
+detected that a mill was not far distant, which another turning brought
+us at once in front of.
+
+And here I cannot help dwelling upon the "tableau" which met our view.
+In the porch of the little rural mill sat two gentlemen, one of whom I
+immediately recognised as the person who had waited upon me, and the
+other I rightly conjectured to be my adversary.  Before them stood a
+small table, covered with a spotless napkin, upon which a breakfast
+equipage was spread--a most inviting melon and a long, slender-necked
+bottle, reposing in a little ice-pail, forming part of the "materiel."
+My opponent was cooly enjoying his cigar--a half-finished cup of coffee
+lay beside him--his friend was occupied in examining the caps of the
+duelling pistols, which were placed upon a chair.  No sooner had we
+turned the angle which brought us in view, than they both rose, and,
+taking off their hats with much courtesy, bade us good morning.
+
+"May I offer you a cup of coffee," said Monsieur Derigny to me, as I came
+up, at the same time filling it out, and pushing over a little flask of
+Cogniac towards me.
+
+A look from Trevanion decided my acceptance of the proferred civility,
+and I seated myself in the chair beside the baron.  Trevanion meanwhile
+had engaged my adversary in conversation along with the stranger, who had
+been our guide, leaving O'Leary alone unoccupied, which, however, he did
+not long remain; for, although uninvited by the others, he seized a knife
+and fork, and commenced a vigorous attack upon a partridge pie near him;
+and, with equal absence of ceremony, uncorked the champaign and filled
+out a foaming goblet, nearly one-third of the whole bottle, adding--
+
+"I think, Mr. Lorrequer, there's nothing like showing them that we are
+just as cool and unconcerned as themselves."
+
+If I might judge from the looks of the party, a happier mode of
+convincing them of our "free-and-easy" feelings could not possibly have
+been discovered.  From any mortification this proceeding might have
+caused me, I was speedily relieved by Trevanion calling O'Leary to one
+side, while he explained to him that he must nominally act as second on
+the ground, as Trevanion, being a resident in Paris, might become liable
+to a prosecution, should any thing serious arise, while O'Leary, as a
+mere passer through, could cross the frontier into Germany, and avoid all
+trouble.
+
+O'Leary at once acceded--perhaps the more readily because he expected to
+be allowed to return to his breakfast--but in this he soon found himself
+mistaken, for the whole party now rose, and preceded by the baron,
+followed the course of the little stream.
+
+After about five minutes' walking, we found ourselves at the outlet of
+the glen, which was formed by a large stone quarry, making a species of
+amphitheatre, with lofty walls of rugged granite, rising thirty or forty
+feet on either side of us.  The ground was smooth and level as a boarded
+floor, and certainly to amateurs in these sort of matters, presented a
+most perfect spot for a "meeting."
+
+The stranger who had just joined us, could not help remarking our looks
+of satisfaction at the choice of ground, and observed to me--
+
+"This is not the first affair that this little spot has witnessed; and
+the moulinet of St. Cloud is, I think, the very best 'meet' about Paris."
+
+Trevanion who, during these few minutes, had been engaged with Derigny,
+now drew me aside.
+
+"Well, Lorrequer, have you any recollection now of having seen your
+opponent before? or can you make a guess at the source of all this?"
+
+"Never till this instant," said I, "have I beheld him," as I looked
+towards the tall, stoutly-built figure of my adversary, who was very
+leisurely detaching a cordon from his tightly fitting frock, doubtless to
+prevent its attracting my aim.
+
+"Well, never mind, I shall manage every thing properly.  What can you do
+with the small sword, for they have rapiers at the mill?"
+
+"Nothing whatever; I have not fenced since I was a boy."
+
+"N'importe--then we'll fight at a barriere.  I know they're not prepared
+for that from Englishmen; so just step on one side now, and leave me to
+talk it over."
+
+As the limited nature of the ground did not permit me to retire to a
+distance, I became involuntarily aware of a dialogue, which even the
+seriousness of the moment could scarcely keep me from laughing at
+outright.
+
+It was necessary, for the sake of avoiding any possible legal difficulty
+in the result, that O'Leary should give his assent to every step of the
+arrangement; and being totally ignorant of French, Trevanion had not only
+to translate for him, but also to render in reply O'Leary's own comments
+or objections to the propositions of the others.
+
+"Then it is agreed--we fight at a barriere," said the Captain Derigny.
+
+"What's that, Trevanion?"
+
+"We have agreed to place them at a barriere," replied Trevanion.
+
+"That's strange," muttered O'Leary to himself, who, knowing that the word
+meant a "turnpike," never supposed it had any other signification.
+
+"Vingt quatre pas, n'est pas," said Derigny.
+
+"Too far," interposed Trevanion.
+
+"What does he say now?" asked O'Leary.
+
+"Twenty-four paces for the distance."
+
+"Twenty-four of my teeth he means," said O'Leary, snapping his fingers.
+"What does he think of the length of Sackville-street?  Ask him that,
+will ye?"
+
+"What says Monsieur?" said the Frenchman.
+
+"He thinks the distance much too great."
+
+"He may be mistaken," said the Captain, half sneeringly.  "My friend is
+'de la premiere force.'"
+
+"That must be something impudent, from your looks, Mr. Trevanion.  Isn't
+it a thousand pities I can't speak French?"
+
+"What say you, then, to twelve paces?  Fire together, and two shots each,
+if the first fire be inconclusive," said Trevanion.
+
+"And if necessary," added the Frenchman, carelessly, "conclude with
+these"--touching the swords with his foot as he spoke.
+
+"The choice of the weapon lies with us, I opine," replied Trevanion.
+"We have already named pistols, and by them we shall decide this matter."
+
+It was at length, after innumerable objections, agreed upon that we
+should be placed back to back, and at a word given each walk forward to a
+certain distance marked out by a stone, where we were to halt, and at the
+signal, "une," "deux," turn round and fire.
+
+This, which is essentially a French invention in duelling, was perfectly
+new to me, but by no means to Trevanion, who was fully aware of the
+immense consequence of not giving even a momentary opportunity for aim to
+my antagonist; and in this mode of firing the most practised and deadly
+shot is liable to err--particularly if the signal be given quickly.
+
+While Trevanion and the Captain were measuring out the ground, a little
+circumstance which was enacted near me was certainly not over calculated
+to strengthen my nerve.  The stranger who had led us to the ground had
+begun to examine the pistols, and finding that one of them was loaded,
+turned towards my adversary, saying, "De Haultpenne, you have forgotten
+to draw the charge.  Come let us see what vein you are in."  At the same
+time, drawing off his large cavalry glove, he handed the pistol to his
+friend.
+
+"A double Napoleon you don't hit the thumb."
+
+"Done," said the other, adjusting the weapon in his hand.
+
+The action was scarcely performed, when the bettor flung the glove into
+the air with all his force.  My opponent raised his pistol, waited for an
+instant, till the glove, having attained its greatest height, turned to
+fall again.  Then click went the trigger--the glove turned round and
+round half-a-dozen times, and fell about twenty yards off, and the thumb
+was found cut clearly off at the juncture with the hand.
+
+This--which did not occupy half as long as I have spent in recounting it
+--was certainly a pleasant introduction to standing at fifteen yards from
+the principal actor; and I should doubtless have felt it in all its
+force, had not my attention been drawn off by the ludicrous expression of
+grief in O'Leary's countenance, who evidently regarded me as already
+defunct.
+
+"Now, Lorrequer, we are ready," said Trevanion, coming forward; and then,
+lowering his voice, added, "All is in your favour; I have won the 'word,'
+which I shall give the moment you halt.  So turn and fire at once: be
+sure not to go too far round in the turn--that is the invariable error in
+this mode of firing; only no hurry--be calm."
+
+"Now, Messieurs," said Derigny, as he approached with his friend leaning
+upon his arm, and placed him in the spot allotted to him.  Trevanion then
+took my arm, and placed me back to back to my antagonist.  As I took up
+my ground, it so chanced that my adversary's spur slightly grazed me,
+upon which he immediately turned round, and, with the most engaging
+smile, begged a "thousand pardons," and hoped I was not hurt.
+
+O'Leary, who saw the incident, and guessed the action aright, called out:
+
+"Oh, the cold-blooded villain; the devil a chance for you, Mr.
+Lorrequer."
+
+"Messieurs, your pistols," said Le Capitaine la Garde, who, as he handed
+the weapons, and repeated once more the conditions of the combat, gave
+the word to march.
+
+I now walked slowly forward to the place marked out by the stone; but it
+seemed that I must have been in advance of my opponent, for I remember
+some seconds elapsed before Trevanion coughed slightly, and then with a
+clear full voice called out "Une," "Deux."  I had scarcely turned myself
+half round, when my right arm was suddenly lifted up, as if by a galvanic
+shock.  My pistol jerked upwards, and exploded the same moment, and then
+dropped powerlessly from my hand, which I now felt was covered with warm
+blood from a wound near the elbow.  From the acute but momentary pang
+this gave me, my attention was soon called off; for scarcely had my arm
+been struck, when a loud clattering noise to my left induced me to turn,
+and then, to my astonishment, I saw my friend O'Leary about twelve feet
+from the ground, hanging on by some ash twigs that grew from the clefts
+of the granite.  Fragments of broken rock were falling around him, and
+his own position momentarily threatened a downfall.  He was screaming
+with all his might; but what he said was entirely lost in the shouts of
+laughter of Trevanion and the Frenchmen, who could scarcely stand with
+the immoderate exuberance of their mirth.
+
+I had not time to run to his aid--which, although wounded, I should have
+done--when the branch he clung to, slowly yielded with his weight, and
+the round, plump figure of my poor friend rolled over the little cleft of
+rock, and, after a few faint struggles, came tumbling heavily down, and
+at last lay peaceably in the deep heather at the bottom--his cries the
+whole time being loud enough to rise even above the vociferous laughter
+of the others.
+
+I now ran forward, as did Trevanion, when O'Leary, turning his eyes
+towards me, said, in the most piteous manner--
+
+"Mr. Lorrequer, I forgive you--here is my hand--bad luck to their French
+way of fighting, that's all--it's only good for killing one's friend.
+I thought I was safe up there, come what might."
+
+"My dear O'Leary," said I, in an agony, which prevented my minding the
+laughing faces around me, "surely you don't mean to say that I have
+wounded you?"
+
+"No, dear, not wounded, only killed me outright--through the brain it
+must be, from the torture I'm suffering."
+
+The shout with which this speech was received, sufficiently aroused me;
+while Trevanion, with a voice nearly choked with laughter, said--
+
+"Why, Lorrequer, did you not see that your pistol, on being struck, threw
+your ball high up on the quarry; fortunately, however, about a foot and a
+half above Mr. O'Leary's head, whose most serious wounds are his
+scratched hands and bruised bones from his tumble."
+
+This explanation, which was perfectly satisfactory to me, was by no means
+so consoling to poor O'Leary, who lay quite unconscious to all around,
+moaning in the most melancholy manner.  Some of the blood, which
+continued to flow fast from my wound, having dropped upon his face,
+roused him a little--but only to increase his lamentation for his own
+destiny, which he believed was fast accomplishing.
+
+"Through the skull--clean through the skull--and preserving my senses to
+the last!  Mr. Lorrequer, stoop down--it is a dying man asks you--don't
+refuse me a last request.  There's neither luck nor grace, honor nor
+glory in such a way of fighting--so just promise me you'll shoot that
+grinning baboon there, when he's going off the ground, since it's the
+fashion to fire at a man with his back to you.  Bring him down, and I'll
+die easy."
+
+And with these words he closed his eyes, and straightened out his legs
+--stretched his arm at either side, and arranged himself as much corpse
+fashion as the circumstances of the ground would permit--while I now
+freely participated in the mirth of the others, which, loud and
+boisterous as it was, never reached the ears of O'Leary.
+
+My arm had now become so painful, that I was obliged to ask Trevanion to
+assist me in getting off my coat.  The surprise of the Frenchmen on
+learning that I was wounded was very considerable--O'Leary's catastrophe
+having exclusively engaged all attention.  My arm was now examined, when
+it was discovered that the ball had passed through from one side to the
+other, without apparently touching the bone; the bullet and the portion
+of my coat carried in by it both lay in my sleeve.  The only serious
+consequence to be apprehended was the wound of the blood-vessel, which
+continued to pour forth blood unceasingly, and I was just surgeon enough
+to guess that an artery had been cut.
+
+Trevanion bound his handkerchief tightly across the wound, and assisted
+me to the high road, which, so sudden was the loss of blood, I reached
+with difficulty.  During all these proceedings, nothing could be possibly
+more kind and considerate than the conduct of our opponents.  All the
+farouche and swaggering air which they had deemed the "rigueur" before,
+at once fled, and in its place we found the most gentlemanlike attention
+and true politeness.
+
+As soon as I was enabled to speak upon the matter, I begged Trevanion to
+look to poor O'Leary, who still lay upon the ground in a state of perfect
+unconsciousness.  Captain Derigny, on hearing my wish, at once returned
+to the quarry, and, with the greatest difficulty, persuaded my friend to
+rise and endeavour to walk, which at last he did attempt, calling him to
+bear witness that it perhaps was the only case on record where a man with
+a bullet in his brain had made such an exertion.
+
+With a view to my comfort and quiet, they put him into the cab of Le
+Baron; and, having undertaken to send Dupuytrien to me immediately on my
+reaching Paris, took their leave, and Trevanion and I set out homeward.
+
+Not all my exhaustion and debility--nor even the acute pain I was
+suffering, could prevent my laughing at O'Leary's adventure; and it
+required all Trevanion's prudence to prevent my indulging too far in my
+recollection of it.
+
+When we reached Meurice's, I found Dupuytrien in waiting, who immediately
+pronounced the main artery of the limb as wounded; and almost as
+instantaneously proceeded to pass a ligature round it.  This painful
+business being concluded, I was placed upon a sofa, and being plentifully
+supplied with lemonade, and enjoined to keep quiet, left to my own
+meditations, such as they were, till evening--Trevanion having taken upon
+him to apologize for our absence at Mrs. Bingham's dejeune, and O'Leary
+being fast asleep in his own apartments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+EARLY RECOLLECTIONS--A FIRST LOVE.
+
+I know of no sensations so very nearly alike, as those felt on awaking
+after very sudden and profuse loss of blood, and those resulting from a
+large dose of opium.  The dizziness, the confusion, and the abstraction
+at first, gradually yielding, as the senses became clearer, to a vague
+and indistinct consciousness; then the strange mistiness, in which fact
+and fiction are wrapped up--the confounding of persons, and places, and
+times, not so as to embarrass and annoy--for the very debility you feel
+subdues all irritation--but rather to present a panoramic picture of odd
+and incongruous events more pleasing than otherwise.
+
+Of the circumstances by which I was thus brought to a sick couch, I had
+not even the most vague recollection--the faces and the dress of all
+those I had lately seen were vividly before me; but how, and for what
+purpose I knew not.  Something in their kindness and attention had left
+an agreeable impression upon my mind, and without being able, or even
+attempting to trace it, I felt happy in the thought.  While thus the
+"hour before" was dim and indistinct, the events of years past were
+vividly and brightly pictured before me; and strange, too, the more
+remote the period, the more did it seem palpable and present to my
+imagination.  For so it is, there is in memory a species of mental
+long-sightedness, which, though blind to the object close beside you, can
+reach the blue mountains and the starry skies, which lie full many a
+league away.  Is this a malady? or is it rather a providential gift to
+alleviate the tedious hours of the sick bed, and cheer the lonely
+sufferer, whose thoughts are his only realm?
+
+My school-boy days, in all their holiday excitement; the bank where I had
+culled the earliest cowslips of the year; the clear but rapid stream,
+where days long I have watched the speckled trout, as they swam
+peacefully beneath, or shook their bright fins in the gay sunshine; the
+gorgeous dragon-fly that played above the water, and dipped his bright
+wings in its ripple--they were all before me.  And then came the thought
+of school itself, with its little world of boyish cares and emulations;
+the early imbibed passion for success; the ardent longing for
+superiority; the high and swelling feeling of the heart, as home drew
+near, to think that I had gained the wished for prize--the object of many
+an hour's toil--the thought of many a long night's dream; my father's
+smile; my mother's kiss!  Oh! what a very world of tender memory that one
+thought suggests; for what are all our later successes in life--how
+bright soever our fortune be--compared with the early triumphs of our
+infancy?  Where, among the jealous rivalry of some, the cold and
+half-wrung praise of others, the selfish and unsympathising regard of all,
+shall we find any thing to repay us for the swelling extacy of our young
+hearts, as those who have cradled and loved us grow proud in our
+successes?  For myself, a life that has failed in every prestige of those
+that prophesied favourably--years that have followed on each other only
+to blight the promise that kind and well-wishing friends foretold--leave
+but little to dwell upon, that can be reckoned as success.  And yet, some
+moments I have had, which half seemed to realize my early dream of
+ambition, and rouse my spirit within me; but what were they all compared
+to my boyish glories? what the passing excitement one's own heart
+inspires in the lonely and selfish solitude, when compared with that
+little world of sympathy and love our early home teemed with, as, proud
+in some trifling distinction, we fell into a mother's arms, and heard our
+father's "God bless you, boy?"  No, no; the world has no requital for
+this.  It is like the bright day-spring, which, as its glories gild the
+east, display before us a whole world of beauty and promise--blighted
+hopes have not withered, false friendships have not scathed, cold,
+selfish interest has not yet hardened our hearts, or dried up our
+affections, and we are indeed happy; but equally like the burst of
+morning is it fleeting and short-lived; and equally so, too, does it pass
+away, never, never to return.
+
+From thoughts like these my mind wandered on to more advanced years,
+when, emerging from very boyhood, I half believed myself a man, and was
+fully convinced I was in love.
+
+Perhaps, after all, for the time it lasted--ten days, I think--it was the
+most sincere passion I ever felt.  I had been spending some weeks at a
+small watering-place in Wales with some relatives of my mother.  There
+were, as might be supposed, but few "distractions" in such a place, save
+the scenery, and an occasional day's fishing in the little river of
+Dolgelly, which ran near.  In all these little rambles which the younger
+portion of the family made together, frequent mention was ever being made
+of a visit from a very dear cousin, and to which all looked forward with
+the greatest eagerness--the elder ones of the party with a certain air of
+quiet pleasure, as though they knew more than they said, and the younger
+with all the childish exuberance of youthful delight.  Clara Mourtray
+seemed to be, from all I was hourly hearing, the very paragon and pattern
+of every thing.  If any one was praised for beauty, Clara was immediately
+pronounced much prettier--did any one sing, Clara's voice and taste were
+far superior.  In our homeward walk, should the shadows of the dark hills
+fall with a picturesque effect upon the blue lake, some one was sure to
+say, "Oh! how Clara would like to sketch that."  In short, there was no
+charm nor accomplishment ever the gift of woman, that Clara did not
+possess; or, what amounted pretty much to the same thing, that my
+relatives did not implicitly give her credit for.  The constantly
+recurring praises of the same person affect us always differently as we
+go on in life.  In youth the prevailing sentiment is an ardent desire to
+see the prodigy of whom we have heard so much--in after years, heartily
+to detest what hourly hurts our self-love by comparisons.  We would take
+any steps to avoid meeting what we have inwardly decreed to be a "bore."
+The former was my course; and though my curiosity was certainly very
+great, I had made up my mind to as great a disappointment, and half
+wished for the longed arrival as a means of criticising what they could
+see no fault in.
+
+The wished-for evening at length came, and we all set out upon a walk to
+meet the carriage which was to bring the bien aime Clara among us.  We
+had not walked above a mile when the eager eye of the foremost detected a
+cloud of dust upon the road at some distance; and, after a few minutes
+more, four posters were seen coming along at a tremendous rate.  The next
+moment she was making the tour of about a dozen uncles, aunts, cousins,
+and cousines, none of whom, it appeared to me, felt any peculiar desire
+to surrender the hearty embrace to the next of kin in succession.  At
+last she came to me, when, perhaps, in the confusion of the moment, not
+exactly remembering whether or not she had seen me before, she stood for
+a moment silent--a deep blush mantling her lovely cheek--masses of waving
+brown hair disordered and floating upon her shoulders--her large and
+liquid blue eyes beaming upon me.  One look was enough.  I was deeply
+--irretrievably in love.
+
+"Our cousin Harry--Harry Lorrequer--wild Harry, as we used to call him,
+Clara," said one of the girls introducing me.
+
+She held out her hand, and said something with a smile.  What, I know
+not--nor can I tell how I replied; but something absurd it must have
+been, for they all laughed heartily, and the worthy papa himself tapped
+my shoulder jestingly, adding,
+
+"Never mind, Harry--you will do better one day, or I am much mistaken in
+you."
+
+Whether I was conscious that I had behaved foolishly or not, I cannot
+well say; but the whole of that night I thought over plans innumerable
+how I should succeed in putting myself forward before "Cousin Clara," and
+vindicating myself against any imputation of schoolboy mannerisms that my
+first appearance might have caused.
+
+The next day we remained at home.  Clara was too much fatigued to walk
+out, and none of us would leave her.  What a day of happiness that was!
+I knew something of music, and could sing a second.  Clara was delighted
+at this, for the others had not cultivated singing much.  We therefore
+spent the whole morning in this way.  Then she produced her sketch-book,
+and I brought out mine, and we had a mutual interchange of prisoners.
+What cutting out of leaves and detaching of rice-paper landscapes!  The
+she came out upon the lawn to see my pony leap, and promised to ride him
+the following day.  She patted the greyhounds, and said Gipsy, which was
+mine, was the prettiest.  In a word, before night fell Clara had won my
+heart in its every fibre, and I went to my room the very happiest of
+mortals.
+
+I need not chronicle my next three days--to me the most glorious "trois
+jours" of my life.  Clara had evidently singled me out and preferred me
+to all the rest.  It was beside me she rode--upon my arm she leaned in
+walking--and, to comble me with delight unutterable, I overheard her say
+to my uncle, "Oh, I doat upon poor Harry!  And it is so pleasant, for I'm
+sure Mortimer will be so jealous."
+
+"And who is Mortimer," thought I; "he is a new character in the piece, of
+whom we have seen nothing."
+
+I was not long in doubt upon this head, for that very day, at dinner, the
+identical Mortimer presented himself.  He was a fine, dashing-looking,
+soldier-like fellow, of about thirty-five, and with a heavy moustache,
+and a bronzed cheek--rather grave in his manner, but still perfectly
+good-natured, and when he smiled showing a most handsome set of regular
+teeth.  Clara seemed less pleased (I thought) at his coming than the
+others, and took pleasure in tormenting him by a thousand pettish and
+frivolous ways, which I was sorry for, as I thought he did not like it;
+and used to look half chidingly at her from time to time, but without any
+effect, for she just went on as before, and generally ended by taking my
+arm and saying, "Come away, Harry; you always are kind, and never look
+sulky.  I can agree with you."  These were delightful words for me to
+listen to, but I could not hear them without feeling for him, who
+evidently was pained by Clara's avowed preference for me; and whose
+years--for I thought thirty-five at that time a little verging upon the
+patriarchal--entitled him to more respect.
+
+"Well," thought I, one evening, as this game had been carried rather
+farther than usual, "I hope she is content now, for certainly Mortimer is
+jealous;" and the result proved it, for the whole of the following day he
+absented himself, and never came back till late in the evening.  He had
+been, I found, from a chance observation I overheard, at the bishop's
+palace, and the bishop himself, I learned, was to breakfast with us in
+the morning.
+
+"Harry, I have a commission for you," said Clara.  "You must get up
+very early to-morrow, and climb the Cader mountain, and bring me a grand
+bouquet of the blue and purple heath that I liked so much the last time
+I was there.  Mind very early, for I intend to surprise the bishop
+to-morrow with my taste in a nosegay."
+
+The sun had scarcely risen as I sprang from my bed, and started upon my
+errand.  Oh! the glorious beauty of that morning's walk.  As I climbed
+the mountain, the deep mists lay upon all around, and except the path I
+was treading, nothing was visible; but before I reached the top, the
+heavy masses of vapour were yielding to the influence of the sun; and as
+they rolled from the valleys up the mountain sides, were every instant
+opening new glens and ravines beneath me--bright in all their verdure,
+and speckled with sheep, whose tingling bells reached me even where I
+stood.
+
+I counted above twenty lakes at different levels, below me; some
+brilliant, and shining like polished mirrors; others not less beautiful,
+dark and solemn with some mighty mountain shadow.  As I looked landward,
+the mountains reared their huge crests, one above the other, to the
+farthest any eye could reach.  Towards the opposite side, the calm and
+tranquil sea lay beneath me, bathed in the yellow gold of a rising sun; a
+few ships were peaceably lying at anchor in the bay; and the only thing
+in motion was a row-boat, the heavy monotonous stroke of whose oars rose
+in the stillness of the morning air.  Not a single habitation of man
+could I descry, nor any vestige of a human being, except that mass of
+something upon the rock far down beneath be one, and I think it is, for I
+see the sheep-dog ever returning again and again to the same spot.
+
+My bouquet was gathered; the gentian of the Alps, which is found here,
+also contributing its evidence to show where I had been to seek it, and I
+turned home.
+
+The family were at breakfast as I entered; at least so the servants said,
+for I only remembered then that the bishop was our guest, and that I
+could not present myself without some slight attention to my dress.  I
+hastened to my room, and scarcely had I finished, when one of my cousins,
+a little girl of eight years, came to the door and said,
+
+"Harry, come down; Clara wants you."
+
+I rushed down stairs, and as I entered the breakfast parlour, stood still
+with surprise.  The ladies were all dressed in white, and even my little
+cousin wore a gala costume that amazed me.
+
+"My bouquet, Harry; I hope you have not forgotten it," said Clara, as I
+approached.
+
+I presented it at once, when she gaily and coquettishly held out her hand
+for me to kiss.  This I did, my blood rushing to my face and temples the
+while, and almost depriving me of consciousness.
+
+"Well, Clara, I am surprised at you," said Mortimer.  "How can you treat
+the poor boy so?"
+
+I grew deadly pale at these words, and, turning round, looked at the
+speaker full in the face.  Poor fellow, thought I, he is jealous, and I
+am really grieved for him; and turned again to Clara.
+
+"Here it is--oh! how handsome, papa," said one of the younger children,
+running eagerly to the window, as a very pretty open carriage with four
+horses drew up before the house.
+
+"The bishop has taste," I murmured to myself, scarcely deigning to give a
+second look at the equipage.
+
+Clara now left the room, but speedily returned--her dress changed, and
+shawled as if for a walk.  What could all this mean?--and the whispering,
+too, what is all that?--and why are they all so sad?--Clara has been
+weeping.
+
+"God bless you, my child--good by," said my aunt, as she folded her in
+her arms for the third time.
+
+"Good by, good by," I heard on every side.  At length, approaching me,
+Clara took my hand and said--
+
+"My poor Harry, so we are going to part.  I am going to Italy."
+
+"To Italy, Clara?  Oh! no--say no.  Italy!  I shall never see you again."
+
+"Won't you wear this ring for me, Harry?  It is an old favourite of
+yours--and when we meet again"--
+
+"Oh! dearest Clara," I said, "do not speak thus."
+
+"Good by, my poor boy, good by," said Clara hurriedly; and, rushing
+out of the room, she was lifted by Mortimer into the carriage, who,
+immediately jumping in after her, the whip cracked, the horses clattered,
+and all was out of sight in a second.
+
+"Why is she gone with him?" said I, reproachfully, turning towards my
+aunt.
+
+"Why, my dear, a very sufficient reason.  She was married this morning."
+
+This was my first love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+WISE RESOLVES.
+
+Musing over this boyish adventure, I fell into a deep slumber, and on
+awakening it took me some minutes before I could recall my senses
+sufficiently to know where I was.  The whole face of things in my room
+was completely changed.  Flowers had been put in the china vases upon the
+tables--two handsome lamps, shaded with gauzes, stood upon the consoles
+--illustrated books, prints, and caricatures, were scattered about.  A
+piano-forte had also, by some witchcraft, insinuated itself into a recess
+near the sofa--a handsome little tea service, of old Dresden china,
+graced a marquetry table--and a little picquet table stood most
+invitingly beside the fire.  I had scarcely time to turn my eyes from one
+to the other of these new occupants, when I heard the handle of my door
+gently turn, as if by some cautious hand, and immediately closed my eyes
+and feigned sleep.  Through my half-shut lids I perceived the door
+opened.  After a pause of about a second, the skirt of a white muslin
+dress appeared--then a pretty foot stole a little farther--and at last
+the slight and graceful figure of Emily Bingham advanced noiselessly into
+the room.  Fear had rendered her deadly pale; but the effect of her rich
+brown hair, braided plainly on either side of her cheek, suited so well
+the character of her features, I thought her far handsomer than ever.
+She came forward towards the table, and I now could perceive that she had
+something in her hand resembling a letter.  This she placed near my hand
+--so near as almost to touch it.  She leaned over me--I felt her breath
+upon my brow, but never moved.  At this instant, a tress of her hair,
+becoming unfastened, fell over upon my face.  She started--the motion
+threw me off my guard, and I looked up.  She gave a faint, scarce audible
+shriek, and sank into the chair beside me.  Recovering, however, upon the
+instant, she grasped the letter she had just laid down, and, having
+crushed it between her fingers, threw it into the fire.  This done--as if
+the effort had been too much for her strength--she again fell back upon
+her seat, and looked so pale I almost thought she had fainted.
+
+Before I had time to speak, she rose once more; and now her face was
+bathed in blushes, her eyes swam with rising tears, and her lips trembled
+with emotion as she spoke.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Lorrequer, what will you--what can you think of this?  If you
+but knew--;" and here she faltered and again grew pale, while I with
+difficulty rising from the sofa, took her hand, and led her to the chair
+beside it.
+
+"And may I not know?" said I; "may I not know, my dear"--I am not sure
+I did not say dearest--"Miss Bingham, when, perhaps, the knowledge might
+make me the happiest of mortals?"
+
+This was a pretty plunge as a sequel to my late resolutions.  She hid her
+face between her hands, and sobbed for some seconds.
+
+"At least," said I, "as that letter was destined for me but a few moments
+since, I trust that you will let me hear its contents."
+
+"Oh no--not now--not now," said she entreatingly; and, rising at the same
+time, she turned to leave the room.  I still held her hand, and pressed
+it within mine.  I thought she returned the pressure.  I leaned forward
+to catch her eye, when the door was opened hastily, and a most
+extraordinary figure presented itself.
+
+It was a short, fat man, with a pair of enormous moustaches, of a fiery
+red; huge bushy whiskers of the same colour; a blue frock covered with
+braiding, and decorated with several crosses and ribbons; tight
+pantaloons and Hessian boots, with long brass spurs.  He held a large
+gold-headed cane in his hand, and looked about with an expression of very
+equivocal drollery, mingled with fear.
+
+"May I ask, sir," said I, as this individual closed the door behind him,
+"may I ask the reason for this intrusion?"
+
+"Oh, upon my conscience, I'll do--I'm sure to pass muster now," said the
+well-known voice of Mr. O'Leary, whose pleasant features began to dilate
+amid the forest of red hair he was disguised in.  "But I see you are
+engaged," said he, with a sly look at Miss Bingham, whom he had not yet
+recognised; "so I must contrive to hide myself elsewhere, I suppose."
+
+"It is Miss Bingham," said I, "who has been kind enough to come here
+with her maid, to bring me some flowers.  Pray present my respectful
+compliments to Mrs. Bingham, and say how deeply I feel her most kind
+attention."
+
+Emily rose at the instant, and recovering her self-possession at once,
+said--
+
+"You forget, Mr. Lorrequer, it is a secret from whom the flowers came;
+at least mamma hoped to place them in your vases without you knowing.
+So, pray, don't speak of it--and I'm sure Mr. O'Leary will not tell."
+
+If Mr. O'Leary heard one word of this artful speech, I know not, but he
+certainly paid no attention to it, nor the speaker, who left the room
+without his appearing aware of it.
+
+"Now that she is gone--for which heaven be praised," said I to myself;
+"let me see what this fellow can mean."
+
+As I turned from the door, I could scarcely avoid laughing aloud at the
+figure before me.  He stood opposite a large mirror, his hat on one side
+of his head, one arm in his breast, and the other extended, leaning upon
+his stick; a look of as much ferocity as such features could accomplish
+had been assumed, and his whole attitude was a kind of caricature of a
+melo-dramatic hero in a German drama.
+
+"Why, O'Leary, what is all this?"
+
+"Hush, hush," said he, in a terrified whisper--"never mention that name
+again, till we are over the frontier."
+
+"But, man, explain--what do you mean?"
+
+"Can't you guess," said he drily.
+
+"Impossible; unless the affair at the saloon has induced you to take this
+disguise, I cannot conceive the reason."
+
+"Nothing farther from it, my dear friend; much worse than that."
+
+"Out with it, then, at once."
+
+"She's come--she's here--in this very house--No. 29, above the entre
+sol."
+
+"Who is here, in No. 29, above the entre sol?"
+
+"Who, but Mrs. O'Leary herself.  I was near saying bad luck to her."
+
+"And does she know you are here?"
+
+"That is what I can't exactly say," said he, "but she has had the Livre
+des Voyageurs brought up to her room, and has been making rather
+unpleasant inquiries for the proprietor of certain hieroglyphics
+beginning with O, which have given me great alarm--the more, as all the
+waiters have been sent for in turn, and subjected to long examination by
+her.  So I have lost no time, but, under the auspices of your friend
+Trevanion, have become the fascinating figure you find me, and am now
+Compte O'Lieuki, a Pole of noble family, banished by the Russian
+government, with a father in Siberia, and all that; and I hope, by the
+end of the week, to be able to cheat at ecarte, and deceive the very
+police itself."
+
+The idea of O'Leary's assuming such a metamorphosis was too absurd not
+to throw me into a hearty fit of laughing, in which the worthy emigre
+indulged also.
+
+"But why not leave this at once," said I, "if you are so much in dread of
+a recognition?"
+
+"You forget the trial," added O'Leary, "I must be here on the 18th or all
+my bail is forfeited."
+
+"True--I had forgot that.  Well, now, your plans?"--
+
+"Simply to keep very quiet here till the affair of the tribunal is over,
+and then quit France at once.  Meanwhile, Trevanion thinks that we may,
+by a bold stratagem, send Mrs. O'Leary off on a wrong scent, and has
+requested Mrs. Bingham to contrive to make her acquaintance, and ask her
+to tea in her room, when she will see me, en Polonais, at a distance, you
+know--hear something of my melancholy destiny from Trevanion--and leave
+the hotel quite sure she has no claim on me.  Meanwhile, some others of
+the party are to mention incidentally having met Mr. O'Leary somewhere,
+or heard of his decease, or any pleasant little incident that may occur
+to them."
+
+"The plan is excellent," said I, "for in all probability she may never
+come in your way again, if sent off on a good errand this time."
+
+"That's what I'm thinking," said O'Leary; "and I am greatly disposed to
+let her hear that I'm with Belzoni in Egypt, with an engagement to spend
+the Christmas with the Dey of Algiers.  That would give her a very pretty
+tour for the remainder of the year, and show her the pyramids.  But, tell
+me fairly, am I a good Pole?"
+
+"Rather short," said I, "and a little too fat, perhaps."
+
+"That comes from the dash of Tartar blood, nothing more; and my mother
+was a Fin," said he, "she'll never ask whether from Carlow or the
+Caucasus.  How I revel in the thought, that I may smoke in company
+without a breach of the unities.  But I must go: there is a gentleman
+with a quinsey in No. 9, that gives me a lesson in Polish this morning.
+So good-by, and don't forget to be well enough to-night, for you must be
+present at my debut."
+
+O'Leary had scarcely gone, when my thoughts reverted to Emily Bingham.
+I was not such a coxcomb as to fancy her in love with me; yet certainly
+there was something in the affair which looked not unlike it; and though,
+by such a circumstance, every embarrassment which pressed upon me had
+become infinitely greater, I could not dissemble from myself a sense of
+pleasure at the thought.  She was really a very pretty girl, and improved
+vastly upon acquaintance.  "Le absens ont toujours torts" is the truest
+proverb in any language, and I felt it in its fullest force when
+Trevanion entered my room.
+
+"Well, Lorrequer," said he, "your time is certainly not likely to hang
+heavily on your hands in Paris, if occupation will prevent it, for I find
+you are just now booked for a new scrape."
+
+"What can you mean?" said I, starting up.
+
+"Why, O'Leary, who has been since your illness, the constant visiter at
+the Binghams--dining there every day, and spending his evenings--has just
+told me that the mamma is only waiting for the arrival of Sir Guy
+Lorrequer in Paris to open the trenches in all form; and from what she
+has heard of Sir Guy, she deems it most likely he will give her every aid
+and support to making you the husband of the fair Emily."
+
+"And with good reason, too," said I; "for if my uncle were only given to
+understand that I had once gone far in my attentions, nothing would
+induce him to break off the match.  He was crossed in love himself when
+young, and has made a score of people miserable since, in the benevolent
+idea of marrying them against every obstacle."
+
+"How very smart you have become," said Trevanion, taking a look round my
+room, and surveying in turn each of the new occupants.  "You must
+certainly reckon upon seeing your fair friend here, or all this propriete
+is sadly wasted."
+
+This was the time to explain all about Miss Bingham's visit; and I did
+so, of course omitting any details which might seem to me needless, or
+involving myself in inconsistency.
+
+Trevanion listened patiently to the end--was silent for some moments
+--then added--
+
+"And you never saw the letter?"
+
+"Of course not.  It was burned before my eyes."
+
+"I think the affair looks very serious, Lorrequer.  You may have won this
+girl's affections.  It matters little whether the mamma be a hacknied
+match-maker, or the cousin a bullying duellist.  If the girl have a
+heart, and that you have gained it"--
+
+"Then I must marry, you would say."
+
+"Exactly so--without the prompting of your worthy uncle, I see no
+other course open to you without dishonour.  My advice, therefore, is,
+ascertain--and that speedily--how far your attentions have been attended
+with the success you dread--and then decide at once.  Are you able to get
+as far as Mrs. Bingham's room this morning?  If so, come along.  I shall
+take all the frais of la chere mamma off your hands, while you talk to
+the daughter; and half-an-hour's courage and resolution will do it all."
+
+Having made the most effective toilet my means would permit, my right arm
+in a sling, and my step trembling from weakness, I sallied forth with
+Trevanion to make love with as many fears for the result as the most
+bashful admirer ever experienced, when pressing his suit upon some
+haughty belle--but for a far different reason.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE PROPOSAL.
+
+On reaching Mrs. Bingham's apartments, we found that she had just left
+home to wait upon Mrs. O'Leary, and consequently, that Miss Bingham was
+alone.  Trevanion, therefore, having wished me a safe deliverance through
+my trying mission, shook my hand warmly, and departed.
+
+I stood for some minutes irresolutely, with my hand upon the lock of the
+door.  To think that the next few moments may decide the fortune of one's
+after life, is a sufficiently anxious thought; but that your fate may be
+so decided, by compelling you to finish in sorrow what you have begun in
+folly, is still more insupportable.  Such, then, was my condition.  I had
+resolved within myself, if the result of this meeting should prove that I
+had won Miss Bingham's affections, to propose for her at once in all
+form, and make her my wife.  If, on the other hand, I only found that she
+too had amused herself with a little passing flirtation, why then, I was
+a free man once more: but, on catechising myself a little closer, also,
+one somewhat disposed to make love de novo.
+
+With the speed of lightning, my mind ran over every passage of our
+acquaintance--our first meeting--our solitary walks--our daily, hourly
+associations--our travelling intimacy--the adventure at Chantraine;
+--There was, it is true, nothing in all this which could establish the
+fact of wooing, but every thing which should convince an old offender
+like myself that the young lady was "en prise," and that I myself
+--despite my really strong attachment elsewhere--was not entirely
+scathless.
+
+"Yes," said I, half aloud, as I once more reviewed the past, "it is but
+another chapter in my history in keeping with all the rest--one step has
+ever led me to a second, and so on to a third; what with other men have
+passed for mere trifles, have ever with me become serious difficulties,
+and the false enthusiasm with which I ever follow any object in life,
+blinds me for the time, and mistaking zeal for inclination, I never feel
+how little my heart is interested in success, till the fever of pursuit
+is over."
+
+These were pleasant thoughts for one about to throw himself at a pretty
+girl's feet, and pour out his "soul of love before her;" but that with me
+was the least part of it.  Curran, they say, usually picked up his facts
+in a case from the opposite counsel's statements; I always relied for my
+conduct in carrying on any thing, to the chance circumstances of the
+moment, and trusted to my animal spirits to give me an interest in
+whatever for the time being engaged me.
+
+I opened the door.  Miss Bingham was sitting at a table, her head leaning
+upon her hands--some open letters which lay before her, evidently so
+occupying her attention, that my approach was unheard.  On my addressing
+her, she turned round suddenly, and became at first deep scarlet, then
+pale as death: while, turning to the table, she hurriedly threw her
+letters into a drawer, and motioned me to a place beside her.
+
+After the first brief and common-place inquiry for my health, and hopes
+for my speedy recovery, she became silent; and I too, primed with topics
+innumerable to discuss--knowing how short my time might prove before Mrs.
+Bingham's return--could not say a word.
+
+"I hope, Mr. Lorrequer," said she, at length, "that you have incurred no
+risque by leaving your room so early."
+
+"I have not," I replied, "but, even were there a certainty of it, the
+anxiety I laboured under to see and speak with you alone, would have
+overcome all fears on this account.  Since this unfortunate business
+has confined me to my chamber, I have done nothing but think over
+circumstances which have at length so entirely taken possession of me,
+that I must, at any sacrifice, have sought an opportunity to explain to
+you"--here Emily looked down, and I continued--"I need scarcely say what
+my feelings must long since have betrayed, that to have enjoyed the daily
+happiness of living in your society, of estimating your worth, of feeling
+your fascinations, were not the means most in request for him, who knew,
+too well, how little he deserved, either by fortune or desert, to hope,
+to hope to make you his; and yet, how little has prudence or caution to
+do with situations like this."  She did not guess the animus of this
+speech.  "I felt all I have described; and yet, and yet, I lingered on,
+prizing too dearly the happiness of the present hour, to risque it by any
+avowal of sentiments, which might have banished me from your presence for
+ever.  If the alteration of these hopes and fears have proved too strong
+for my reason at last, I cannot help it; and this it is which now leads
+me to make this avowal to you."  Emily turned her head away from me; but
+her agitated manner showed how deeply my words had affected her; and I
+too, now that I had finished, felt that I had been "coming it rather
+strong."
+
+"I hoped, Mr. Lorrequer," said she, at length, "I hoped, I confess, to
+have had an opportunity of speaking with you."  Then, thought I, the game
+is over, and Bishop Luscombe is richer by five pounds, than I wish him.
+--"Something, I know not what, in your manner, led me to suspect that your
+affections might lean towards me; hints you have dropped, and, now and
+then, your chance allusions strengthened the belief, and I determined, at
+length, that no feeling of maidenly shame on my part should endanger the
+happiness of either of us, and I determined to see you; this was so
+difficult, that I wrote a letter, and that letter, which might have saved
+me all distressing explanation, I burned before you this morning."
+
+"But, why, dearest girl,"--here was a plunge--"why, if the letter could
+remove any misconstruction, or could be the means of dispelling any
+doubt--why not let me see it?"
+
+"Hear me out," cried she, eagerly, and evidently not heeding my
+interruption, "I determined if your affections were indeed"--a flood of
+tears here broke forth, and drowned her words; her head sank between her
+hands, and she sobbed bitterly.
+
+"Corpo di Baccho!" said I to myself, "It is all over with me; the poor
+girl is evidently jealous, and her heart will break."
+
+"Dearest, dearest Emily," said I, passing my arm round her, and
+approaching my head close to her's, "if you think that any other love
+than yours could ever beat within this heart--that I could see you hourly
+before me--live beneath your smile, and gaze upon your beauty--and, still
+more than all--pardon the boldness of the thought--feel that I was not
+indifferent to you."--
+
+"Oh! spare me this at least," said she, turning round her tearful eyes
+upon me, and looking most bewitchingly beautiful.  "Have I then showed
+you this plainly?"
+
+"Yes, dearest girl!  That instinct which tells us we are loved has spoken
+within me.  And here in this beating heart"--
+
+"Oh! say not more," said she, "if I have, indeed, gained your
+affections"--
+
+"If--if you have," said I, clasping her to my heart, while she continued
+to sob still violently, and I felt half disposed to blow my brains out
+for my success.  However, there is something in love-making as in
+fox-hunting, which carries you along in spite of yourself; and I
+continued to pour forth whole rhapsodies of love that the Pastor Fido
+could not equal.
+
+"Enough," said she, "it is enough that you love me and that I have
+encouraged your so doing.  But oh! tell me once more, and think how much
+of future happiness may rest upon your answer--tell me, may not this be
+some passing attachment, which circumstances have created, and others may
+dispel?  Say, might not absence, time, or another more worthy"--
+
+This was certainly a very rigid cross-examination when I thought the
+trial was over; and not being exactly prepared for it, I felt no other
+mode of reply than pressing her taper fingers alternately to my lips, and
+muttering something that might pass for a declaration of love
+unalterable, but, to my own ears, resembled a lament on my folly.
+
+"She is mine now," thought I, "so we must e'en make the best of it; and
+truly she is a very handsome girl, though not a Lady Jane Callonby.  The
+next step is the mamma; but I do not anticipate much difficulty in that
+quarter."
+
+"Leave me now," said she, in a low and broken voice; "but promise not to
+speak of this meeting to any one before we meet again.  I have my
+reasons; believe me they are sufficient ones, so promise me this before
+we part."
+
+Having readily given the pledge required, I again kissed her hand and
+bade farewell, not a little puzzled the whole time at perceiving that
+ever since my declaration and acceptance Emily seemed any thing but
+happy, and evidently struggling against some secret feeling of which I
+knew nothing.  "Yes," thought I, as I wended my way along the corridor,
+"the poor girl is tremendously jealous, and I must have said may a thing
+during our intimacy to hurt her.  However, that is all past and gone; and
+now comes a new character for me: my next appearance wil be 'en bon
+mari.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THOUGHTS UPON MATRIMONY IN GENERAL, AND IN THE ARMY IN PARTICULAR--THE
+KNIGHT OF KERRY AND BILLY M'CABE.
+
+"So," thought I, as I closed the door of my room behind me, "I am
+accepted--the die is cast which makes me a Benedict: yet heaven knows
+that never was a man less disposed to be over joyous at his good
+fortune!"  What a happy invention it were, if when adopting any road in
+life, we could only manage to forget that we had ever contemplated any
+other!  It is the eternal looking back in this world that forms the
+staple of all our misery; and we are but ill-requited for such
+unhappiness by the brightest anticipations we can conjure up for the
+future.  How much of all that "past" was now to become a source of
+painful recollection, and to how little of the future could I look
+forward with even hope!
+
+Our weaknesses are much more constantly the spring of all our annoyances
+and troubles than even our vices.  The one we have in some sort of
+subjection: we are perfectly slaves to the others.  This thought came
+home most forcibly to my bosom, as I reflected upon the step which led me
+on imperceptibly to my present embarrassment.  "Well, c'est fini, now,"
+said I, drawing upon that bountiful source of consolation ever open to
+the man who mars his fortune--that "what is past can't be amended;" which
+piece of philosophy, as well as its twin brother, that "all will be the
+same a hundred years hence," have been golden rules to me from my
+childhood.
+
+The transition from one mode of life to another perfectly different has
+ever seemed to me a great trial of a man's moral courage; besides that
+the fact of quitting for ever any thing, no matter how insignificant or
+valueless, is always attended with painful misgivings.  My bachelor life
+had its share of annoyances and disappointments, it is true; but, upon
+the whole it was a most happy one--and now I was about to surrender it
+for ever, not yielding to the impulse of affection and love for one
+without whom life were valueless to me, but merely a recompense for the
+indulgence of that fatal habit I had contracted of pursuing with
+eagerness every shadow that crossed my path.  All my early friends
+--all my vagrant fancies--all my daydreams of the future I was now to
+surrender--for, what becomes of any man's bachelor friends when he is
+once married?  Where are his rambles in high and bye-ways when he has a
+wife? and what is left for anticipation after his wedding except,
+perhaps, to speculate upon the arrangement of his funeral?  To a military
+man more than to any other these are serious thoughts.  All the
+fascinations of an army life, in war or peace, lie in the daily, hourly
+associations with your brother officers--the morning cigar, the
+barrack-square lounge--the afternoon ride--the game of billiards before
+dinner--the mess (that perfection of dinner society)--the plans for the
+evening--the deviled kidney at twelve--forming so many points of
+departure whence you sail out upon your daily voyage through life.
+Versus those you have that awful perversion of all that is natural--an
+officer's wife.  She has been a beauty when young, had black eyes and
+high complexion, a good figure, rather inclined to embonpoint, and a
+certain springiness in her walk, and a jauntiness in her air, that are
+ever sure attractions to a sub in a marching regiment.  She can play
+backgammon, and sing "di tanti palpiti," and, if an Irishwoman, is
+certain to be able to ride a steeple-chase, and has an uncle a lord, who
+(en parenthese) always turns out to be a creation made by King James
+after his abdication.  In conclusion, she breakfasts en papillote--wears
+her shoes down at heel--calls every officer of the regiment by his name
+--has a great taste for increasing his majesty's lieges, and delights in
+London porter.  To this genus of Frow I have never ceased to entertain
+the most thrilling abhorrence; and yet how often have I seen what
+appeared to be pretty and interesting girls fall into something of this
+sort! and how often have I vowed any fate to myself rather than become
+the husband of a baggage-waggon wife!
+
+Had all my most sanguine hopes promised realizing--had my suit with Lady
+Jane been favourable, I could scarcely have bid adieu to my bachelor life
+without a sigh.  No prospect of future happiness can ever perfectly
+exclude all regret at quitting our present state for ever.  I am sure if
+I had been a caterpillar, it would have been with a heavy heart that I
+would have donned my wings as a butterfly.  Now the metamorphosis was
+reversed: need it be wondered if I were sad?
+
+So completely was I absorbed in my thoughts upon this matter, that I had
+not perceived the entrance of O'Leary and Trevanion, who, unaware of my
+being in the apartment, as I was stretched upon a sofa in a dark corner,
+drew their chairs towards the fire and began chatting.
+
+"Do you know, Mr. Trevanion," said O'Leary, "I am half afraid of this
+disguise of mine.  I sometimes think I am not like a Pole; and if she
+should discover me"--
+
+"No fear of that in the world; your costume is perfect, your beard
+unexceptionable.  I could, perhaps, have desired a little less paunch;
+but then"--
+
+"That comes of fretting, as Falstaff says; and you must not forget that
+I am banished from my country."
+
+"Now, as to your conversation, I should advise you saying very little
+--not one word in English.  You may, if you like, call in the assistance
+of Irish when hard pressed?
+
+"I have my fears on that score.  There is no knowing where that might
+lead to discovery.  You know the story of the Knight of Kerry and Billy
+McCabe?"
+
+"I fear I must confess my ignorance--I have never heard of it."
+
+"Then may be you never knew Giles Daxon?"
+
+"I have not had that pleasure either."
+
+"Lord bless me, how strange that is!  I thought he was better known than
+the Duke of Wellington or the travelling piper.  Well, I must tell you
+the story, for it has a moral, too--indeed several morals; but you'll
+find that out for yourself.  Well, it seems that one day the Knight of
+Kerry was walking along the Strand in London, killing an hour's time,
+till the house was done prayers, and Hume tired of hearing himself
+speaking; his eye was caught by an enormous picture displayed upon the
+wall of a house, representing a human figure covered with long dark hair,
+with huge nails upon his hands, and a most fearful expression of face.
+At first the Knight thought it was Dr. Bowring; but on coming nearer he
+heard a man with a scarlet livery and a cocked hat, call out, 'Walk in,
+ladies and gentlemen--the most vonderful curiosity ever exhibited--only
+one shilling--the vild man from Chippoowango, in Africay--eats raw
+wittles without being cooked, and many other surprising and pleasing
+performances.'
+
+"The knight paid his money, and was admitted.  At first the crowd
+prevented his seeing any thing--for the place was full to suffocation,
+and the noise awful--for, besides the exclamations and applause of the
+audience, there were three barrel-organs, playing 'Home, sweet Home!' and
+'Cherry Ripe,' and the wild man himself contributed his share to the
+uproar.  At last, the Knight obtained, by dint of squeezing, and some
+pushing a place in the front, when, to his very great horror, he beheld a
+figure that far eclipsed the portrait without doors.
+
+"It was a man nearly naked, covered with long, shaggy hair, that grew
+even over his nose and cheek bones.  He sprang about, sometimes on his
+feet, sometimes, all-fours, but always uttering the most fearful yells,
+and glaring upon the crowd, in a manner that was really dangerous.  The
+Knight did not feel exactly happy at the whole proceeding, and began
+heartily to wish himself back in the 'House,' even upon a committee of
+privileges, when, suddenly, the savage gave a more frantic scream than
+before, and seized upon a morsel of raw beef, which a keeper extended to
+him upon a long fork, like a tandem whip--he was not safe, it appears, at
+close quarters;--this he tore to pieces eagerly and devoured in the most
+voracious manner, amid great clapping of hands, and other evidences of
+satisfaction from the audience.  I'll go, now, thought the Knight: for,
+God knows whether, in his hungry moods, he might not fancy to conclude
+his dinner by a member of parliament.  Just at this instant, some sounds
+struck upon his ear that surprised him not a little.  He listened more
+attentively; and, conceive if you can, his amazement, to find that, amid
+his most fearful cries, and wild yells, the savage was talking Irish.
+Laugh, if you like; but it's truth I am telling you; nothing less than
+Irish.  There he was, jumping four feet high in the air, eating his raw
+meat: pulling out his hair by handfuls; and, amid all this, cursing the
+whole company to his heart's content, in as good Irish as ever was heard
+in Tralee.  Now, though the Knight had heard of red Jews and white
+Negroes, he had never happened to read any account of an African
+Irishman; so, he listened very closely, and by degrees, not only the
+words were known to him, but the very voice was familiar.  At length,
+something he heard, left no further doubt upon his mind, and, turning to
+the savage, he addressed him in Irish, at the same time fixing a look of
+most scrutinizing import upon him.
+
+"'Who are you, you scoundrel' said the Knight.
+
+"'Billy M'Cabe your honour.'
+
+"'And what do you mean by playing off these tricks here, instead of
+earning your bread like an honest man?'
+
+"'Whisht,' said Billy, 'and keep the secret.  I'm earning the rent for
+your honour.  One must do many a queer thing that pays two pound ten an
+acre for bad land.'
+
+"This was enough: the Knight wished Billy every success, and left him
+amid the vociferous applause of a well satisfied audience.  This
+adventure, it seems, has made the worthy Knight a great friend to the
+introduction of poor laws; for, he remarks very truly, 'more of Billy's
+countrymen might take a fancy to a savage life, if the secret was found
+out.'"
+
+It was impossible for me to preserve my incognito, as Mr. O'Leary
+concluded his story, and I was obliged to join in the mirth of Trevanion,
+who laughed loud and long as he finished it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+A REMINISCENCE.
+
+O'Leary and Trevanion had scarcely left the room when the waiter entered
+with two letters--the one bore a German post-mark, and was in the
+well-known hand of Lady Callonby--the other in a writing with which I was
+no less familiar--that of Emily Bingham.
+
+Let any one who has been patient enough to follow me through these
+"Confessions," conceive my agitation at this moment.  There lay my fate
+before me, coupled, in all likelihood, with a view of what it might have
+been under happier auspices--at least so in anticipation did I read the
+two unopened epistles.  My late interview with Miss Bingham left no doubt
+upon my mind that I had secured her affections; and acting in accordance
+with the counsel of Trevanion, no less than of my own sense of right, I
+resolved upon marrying her, with what prospect of happiness I dared not
+to think of!
+
+Alas! and alas! there is no infatuation like the taste for flirtation
+--mere empty, valueless, heartless flirtation.  You hide the dice-box and
+the billiard queue, lest your son become a gambler--you put aside the
+racing calendar, lest he imbibe a jockey predilection--but you never
+tremble at his fondness for white muslin and a satin slipper, far more
+dangerous tastes though they be, and infinitely more perilous to a man's
+peace and prosperity than all the "queens of trumps" that ever figured,
+whether on pasteboard or the Doncaster.  "Woman's my weakness, yer
+honor," said an honest Patlander, on being charged before the lord mayor
+with having four wives living; and without having any such "Algerine act"
+upon my conscience, I must, I fear, enter a somewhat similar plea for my
+downfallings, and avow in humble gratitude, that I have scarcely had a
+misfortune through life unattributable to them in one way or another.
+And this I say without any reference to country, class, or complexion,
+"black, brown or fair," from my first step forth into life, a raw sub.
+in the gallant 4_th, to this same hour, I have no other avowal, no other
+confession to make.  "Be always ready with the pistol," was the dying
+advice of an Irish statesman to his sons: mine, in a similar
+circumstance, would rather be "Gardez vous des femmes," and more
+especially if they be Irish.
+
+There is something almost treacherous in the facility with which an
+Irish girl receives your early attentions and appears to like them,
+that invariably turns a young fellow's head very long before he has any
+prospect of touching her heart.  She thinks it so natural to be made love
+to, that there is neither any affected coyness nor any agitated surprise.
+She listens to your declaration of love as quietly as the chief justice
+would to one of law, and refers the decision to a packed jury of her
+relatives, who rarely recommend you to mercy.  Love and fighting, too,
+are so intimately united in Ireland, that a courtship rarely progresses
+without at least one exchange of shots between some of the parties
+concerned.  My first twenty-four hours in Dublin is so pleasantly
+characteristic of this that I may as well relate it here, while the
+subject is before us; besides, as these "Confessions" are intended as
+warnings and guides to youth, I may convey a useful lesson, showing why
+a man should not "make love in the dark."
+
+It was upon a raw, cold, drizzling morning in February, 18__, that our
+regiment landed on the North-wall from Liverpool, whence we had been
+hurriedly ordered to repress some riots and disturbances then agitating
+Dublin.
+
+We marched to the Royal Barracks, our band playing Patrick's Day, to the
+very considerable admiration of as naked a population as ever loved
+music.  The __th dragoons were at the same time quartered there--right
+pleasant jovial fellows, who soon gave us to understand that the troubles
+were over before we arrived, and that the great city authorities were now
+returning thanks for their preservation from fire and sword, by a series
+of entertainments of the most costly, but somewhat incongruous kind--the
+company being scarce less melee than the dishes.  Peers and playactors,
+judges and jailors, archbishops, tailors, attorneys, ropemakers and
+apothecaries, all uniting in the festive delight of good feeding, and
+drinking the "glorious memory"--but of whom half the company knew not,
+only surmising "it was something agin the papists."  You may smile, but
+these were pleasant times, and I scarcely care to go back there since
+they were changed.  But to return.  The __th had just received an
+invitation to a ball, to be given by the high sheriff, and to which they
+most considerately said we should also be invited.  This negociation was
+so well managed that before noon we all received our cards from a green
+liveried youth, mounted on a very emaciated pony--the whole turn-out not
+auguring flatteringly of the high sheriff's taste in equipage.
+
+We dined with the __th, and, as customary before going to an evening
+party, took the "other bottle" of claret that lies beyond the frontier of
+prudence.  In fact, from the lieutenant-colonel down to the newly-joined
+ensign, there was not a face in the party that did not betray "signs of
+the times" that boded most favourably for the mirth of the sheriff's
+ball.  We were so perfectly up to the mark, that our major, a Connemara
+man, said, as we left the mess-room, "a liqueure glass would spoil us."
+
+In this acme of our intellectual wealth, we started about eleven o'clock
+upon every species of conveyance that chance could press into the
+service.  Of hackney coaches there were few--but in jingles, noddies, and
+jaunting-cars, with three on a side and "one in the well," we mustered
+strong--Down Barrack-street we galloped, the mob cheering us, we
+laughing, and I'm afraid shouting a little, too--the watchmen springing
+their rattles, as if instinctively at noise, and the whole population up
+and awake, evidently entertaining a high opinion of our convivial
+qualities.  Our voices became gradually more decorous, however, as we
+approached the more civilized quarter of the town; and with only the
+slight stoppage of the procession to pick up an occasional dropper-off,
+as he lapsed from the seat of a jaunting-car, we arrived at length at our
+host's residence, somewhere in Sackville-street.
+
+Had our advent conferred the order of knighthood upon the host, he could
+not have received us with more "empressement."  He shook us all in turn
+by the hand, to the number of eight and thirty, and then presented us
+seriatim to his spouse, a very bejewelled lady of some forty years--who,
+what between bugles, feathers, and her turban, looked excessively like a
+Chinese pagoda upon a saucer.  The rooms were crowded to suffocation--the
+noise awful--and the company crushing and elbowing rather a little more
+than you expect where the moiety are of the softer sex.  However, "on
+s'habitue a tout," sayeth the proverb, and with truth, for we all so
+perfectly fell in with the habits of the place, that ere half an hour,
+we squeezed, ogled, leered, and drank champagne like the rest of the
+corporation.
+
+"Devilish hot work, this," said the colonel, as he passed me with two
+rosy-cheeked, smiling ladies on either arm; "the mayor--that little
+fellow in the punch-coloured shorts--has very nearly put me hors de
+combat with champagne; take care of him, I advise you."
+
+Tipsy as I felt myself, I was yet sufficiently clear to be fully alive
+to the drollery of the scene before me.  Flirtations that, under other
+circumstances, would demand the secrecy and solitude of a country green
+lane, or some garden bower, were here conducted in all the open
+effrontery of wax lights and lustres; looks were interchanged, hands
+were squeezed, and soft things whispered, and smiles returned; till
+the intoxication of "punch negus" and spiced port, gave way to the far
+greater one of bright looks and tender glances.  Quadrilles and country
+dances--waltzing there was none, (perhaps all for the best)--whist,
+backgammon, loo--unlimited for uproar--sandwiches, and warm liquors,
+employed us pretty briskly till supper was announced, when a grand
+squeeze took place on the stairs--the population tending thitherward with
+an eagerness that a previous starvation of twenty-four hours could alone
+justify.  Among this dense mass of moving muslin, velvet and broad-cloth,
+I found myself chaperoning an extremely tempting little damsel, with a
+pair of laughing blue eyes and dark eyelashes, who had been committed to
+my care and guidance for the passage.
+
+"Miss Moriarty, Mr. Lorrequer," said an old lady in green and spangles,
+who I afterwards found was the lady mayoress.
+
+"The nicest girl in the room," said a gentleman with a Tipperary accent,
+"and has a mighty nice place near Athlone."
+
+The hint was not lost upon me, and I speedily began to faire l'amiable to
+my charge; and before we reached the supper room, learned certain
+particulars of her history, which I have not yet forgot.  She was, it
+seems, sister to a lady then in the room, the wife of an attorney, who
+rejoiced in the pleasing and classical appellation of Mr. Mark Anthony
+Fitzpatrick; the aforesaid Mark Anthony being a tall, raw-boned,
+black-whiskered, ill-looking dog, that from time to time contrived to
+throw very uncomfortable looking glances at me and Mary Anne, for she was
+so named, the whole time of supper.  After a few minutes, however, I
+totally forgot him, and, indeed, every thing else, in the fascination of
+my fair companion.  She shared her chair with me, upon which I supported
+her by my arm passed round the back; we eat our pickled salmon, jelly,
+blanc mange, cold chicken, ham, and custard; off the same plate, with an
+occasional squeeze of the finger, as our hands met--her eyes making sad
+havoc with me all the while, as I poured my tale of love--love, lasting,
+burning, all-consuming--into her not unwilling ear.
+
+"Ah! now, ye'r not in earnest?"
+
+"Yes, Mary Anne, by all that's"--
+
+"Well, there now, don't swear, and take care--sure Mark Anthony is
+looking."
+
+"Mark Anthony be--"
+
+"Oh! how passionate you are; I'm sure I never could live easy with you.
+There, now, give me some sponge cake, and don't be squeezing me, or
+they'll see you."
+
+"Yes, to my heart, dearest girl."
+
+"Och, it's cheese you're giving me," said she, with a grimace that nearly
+cured my passion.
+
+"A cottage, a hut, with you--with you," said I, in a cadence that I defy
+Macready to rival--"what is worldly splendour, or the empty glitter of
+rank."
+
+I here glanced at my epaulettes, upon which I saw her eyes rivetted.
+
+"Isn't the ginger beer beautiful," said she, emptying a glass of
+champagne.
+
+Still I was not to be roused from my trance, and continued my courtship
+as warmly as ever.
+
+"I suppose you'll come home now," said a gruff voice behind Mary Anne.
+
+I turned and perceived Mark Anthony with a grim look of peculiar import.
+
+"Oh, Mark dear, I'm engaged to dance another set with this gentleman."
+
+"Ye are, are ye?" replied Mark, eyeing me askance.  "Troth and I think
+the gentleman would be better if he went off to his flea-bag himself."
+
+In my then mystified intellect this west country synonyme for a bed a
+little puzzled me.
+
+"Yes sir, the lady is engaged to me: have you any thing to say to that?"
+
+"Nothing at present, at all," said Mark, almost timidly.
+
+"Oh dear, oh dear," sobbed Mary Anne; "they're going to fight, and he'll
+be killed--I know he will."
+
+For which of us this fate was destined, I stopped not to consider, but
+amid a very sufficient patting upon the back, and thumping between the
+shoulders, bestowed by members of the company who approved of my
+proceedings.  The three fiddles, the flute, and bassoon, that formed our
+band, being by this time sufficiently drunk, played after a fashion of
+their own, which by one of those strange sympathies of our nature,
+imparted its influence to our legs, and a country dance was performed in
+a style of free and easy gesticulation that defies description.  At the
+end of eighteen couple, tired of my exertions--and they were not slight
+--I leaned my back against the wall of the room, which I now, for the
+first time, perceived was covered with a very peculiar and novel species
+of hanging--no less than a kind of rough, green baize cloth, that moved
+and floated at every motion of the air.  I paid little attention to this,
+till suddenly turning my head, something gave way behind it.  I felt
+myself struck upon the back of the neck, and fell forward into the room,
+covered by a perfect avalanche of fenders, fire-irons, frying-pans, and
+copper kettles, mingled with the lesser artillery of small nails, door
+keys, and holdfasts.  There I lay amid the most vociferous mirth I ever
+listened to, under the confounded torrent of ironmongery that
+half-stunned me.  The laughter over, I was assisted to rise, and having
+drank about a pint of vinegar, and had my face and temples washed in
+strong whiskey punch--the allocation of the fluids being mistaken, I
+learned that our host, the high sheriff, was a celebrated tin and iron
+man, and that his salles de reception were no other than his magazine of
+metals, and that to conceal the well filled shelves from the gaze of his
+aristocratic guests, they were clothed in the manner related; which my
+unhappy head, by some misfortune, displaced, and thus brought on a
+calamity scarcely less afflicting to him than to myself.  I should
+scarcely have stopped to mention this here, were it not that Mary Anne's
+gentle nursing of me in my misery went far to complete what her
+fascination had begun; and although she could not help laughing at the
+occurrence, I forgave her readily for her kindness.
+
+"Remember," said I, trying to ogle through a black eye, painted by the
+angle of a register grate--"remember, Mary Anne, I am to see you home."
+
+"Oh! dear, sir, sure I don't know how you can manage it--"
+
+Here Mark Anthony's entrance cut short this speech, for he came to
+declare that some of the officers had taken his coach, and was, as might
+be supposed, in a towering passion.
+
+"If, sir," said I, with an air of the most balmy courtesy--"If I can be
+of any use in assisting you to see your friends home--"
+
+"Ah! then, ye'r a nice looking article to see ladies home.  I wish you
+seen yourself this minute," said he.
+
+As I felt it would be no breach of the unities--time, place, and every
+thing considered--to smash his skull, I should certainly have proceeded
+to do so, had not a look of the most imploring kind from Mary Anne
+restrained me.  By this time, he had taken her under the arm, and was
+leading her away.  I stood irresolute, till a glance from my charmer
+caught me; when I rallied at once, and followed them down stairs.  Here
+the scene was the full as amusing as above; the cloaking, shawling,
+shoeing, &c., of the ladies being certainly as mirth-moving a process
+as I should wish to see.  Here were mothers trying to collect their
+daughters, as a hen her chickens, and as in that case, the pursuit of one
+usually lost all the others; testy papas swearing, lovers leering, as
+they twisted the boas round the fair throats of their sweethearts; vows
+of love, mingling with lamentations for a lost slipper, or a stray
+mantle.  Sometimes the candles were extinguished, and the melee became
+greater, till the order and light were restored together.  Meanwhile,
+each of our fellows had secured his fair one, save myself, and I was
+exposed to no small ridicule for my want of savoir faire.  Nettled at
+this, I made a plunge to the corner of the room, where Mary Anne was
+shawling; I recognized her pink sash, threw her cloak over her shoulders,
+and at the very moment that Mark Anthony drew his wife's arm within his,
+I performed the same by my friend, and followed them to the door.  Here,
+the grim brother-in-law turned round to take Mary Anne's arm, and seeing
+her with me, merely gave a kind of hoarse chuckle, and muttered, "Very
+well, sir: upon my conscience you will have it, I see."  During this
+brief interval, so occupied was I in watching him, that I never once
+looked in my fair friend's face; but the gentle squeeze of her arm, as
+she leaned upon me, assured me that I had her approval of what I was
+doing.
+
+What were the precise train of my thoughts, and what the subjects of
+conversation between us, I am unfortunately now unable to recollect.
+It is sufficient to remember, that I could not believe five minutes had
+elapsed, when we arrived at York-street.  "Then you confess you love me,"
+said I, as I squeezed her arm to my side.
+
+"Then, by this kiss," said I, "I swear, never to relinquish."--
+
+What I was about to add, I am sure I know not; but true it is, that a
+certain smacking noise here attracted Mr. Mark Anthony's attention, who
+started round, looked as full in the face, and then gravely added,
+"Enough is as good as a feast.  I wish you pleasant drames, Mr. Larry
+Kar, if that's your name; and you'll hear from me in the morning."
+
+"I intend it," said I.  "Good night, dearest; think of--"  The slam of
+the street door in my face spoiled the peroration, and I turned towards
+home.
+
+By the time I reached the barracks, the united effects of the champagne,
+sherry, and Sheffield iron, had, in a good measure subsided, and my head
+had become sufficiently clear to permit a slight retrospect of the
+evening's amusement.
+
+From two illusions I was at least awakened:--First, the high sheriff's
+ball was not the most accurate representation of high society; secondly,
+I was not deeply enamoured of Mary Anne Moriarty.  Strange as it may
+seem, and how little soever the apparent connexion between those two
+facts, the truth of one had a considerable influence in deciding the
+other.  N'importe, said I, the thing is over; it was rather good fun,
+too, upon the whole--saving the "chute des casseroles;" and as to the
+lady, she must have seen it was a joke as well as myself.  At least, so I
+am decided it shall be; and as there was no witness to our conversation,
+the thing is easily got out of.
+
+The following day, as I was dressing to ride out, my servant announced no
+less a person than Mr. Mark Anthony Fitzpatrick, who said "that he came
+upon a little business, and must see me immediately."
+
+Mr. Fitzpatrick, upon being announced, speedily opened his negociation by
+asking in very terse and unequivocal phrase, my intentions regarding his
+sister-in-law.  After professing the most perfect astonishment at the
+question, and its possible import, I replied, that she was a most
+charming person, with whom I intended to have nothing whatever to do.
+
+"And maybe you never proposed for her at the ball last night?"
+
+"Propose for a lady at a ball the first time I ever met her!"
+
+"Just so.  Can you carry your memory so far back? or, perhaps I had
+better refresh it;" and he here repeated the whole substance of my
+conversation on the way homeward, sometimes in the very words I used.
+
+"But, my dear sir, the young lady could never have supposed I used such
+language as this you have repeated?"
+
+"So, then, you intend to break off?  Well, then, it's right to tell you
+that you're in a very ugly scrape, for it was my wife you took home last
+night--not Miss Moriarty; and I leave you to choose at your leisure
+whether you'd rather be defendant in a suit for breach of promise or
+seduction; and, upon my conscience, I think it's civil in me to give you
+a choice."
+
+What a pretty disclosure was here!  So that while I was imaging myself
+squeezing the hand and winning the heart of the fair Mary Anne, I was
+merely making a case of strong evidence for a jury, that might expose me
+to the world, and half ruin me in damages.  There was but one course
+open--to make a fight for it; and, from what I saw of my friend Mark
+Anthony, this did not seem difficult.
+
+I accordingly assumed a high tone--laughed at the entire affair--said it
+was a "way we had in the army"--that "we never meant any thing by it,"
+&c. &c.
+
+In a few minutes I perceived the bait was taking.  Mr. Fitzpatrick's west
+country blood was up: all thought of the legal resource was abandoned;
+and he flung out of the room to find a friend, I having given him the
+name of "one of ours" as mine upon the occasion.
+
+Very little time was lost, for before three o'clock that afternoon a
+meeting was fixed for the following morning at the North Bull; and I had
+the satisfaction of hearing that I only escaped the malignant eloquence
+of Holmes in the King's Bench, to be "blazed" at by the best shot on the
+western circuit.  The thought was no way agreeable, and I indemnified
+myself for the scrape by a very satisfactory anathema upon the high
+sheriff and his ball, and his confounded saucepans; for to the lady's
+sympathy for my sufferings I attributed much of my folly.
+
+At eight the next morning I found myself standing with Curzon and the
+doctor upon that bleak portion of her majesty's dominion they term the
+North Bull, waiting in a chilly rain, and a raw fog, till it pleased Mark
+Anthony Fitzpatrick, to come and shoot me--such being the precise terms
+of our combat, in the opinion of all parties.
+
+The time, however, passed on, and half-past eight, three quarters, and at
+last nine o'clock, without his appearing; when, just as Curzon had
+resolved upon our leaving the ground, a hack jaunting-car was seen
+driving at full speed along the road near us.  It came nearer and at
+length drew up; two men leaped off and came towards us; one of whom, as
+he came forward, took off his hat politely, and introduced himself as Mr.
+O'Gorman, the fighting friend of Mark Anthony.
+
+"It's a mighty unpleasant business I'm come upon, gentlemen," said he,
+"Mr. Fitzpatrick has been unavoidedly prevented from having the happiness
+to meet you this morning--"
+
+"Then you can't expect us, sir, to dance attendance upon him here
+to-morrow," said Curzon, interrupting.
+
+"By no manner of means," replied the other, placidly; "for it would be
+equally inconvenient for him to be here then.  But I have only to say,
+maybe you'd have the kindness to waive all etiquette, and let me stand in
+his place."
+
+"Certainly and decidedly not," said Curzon.  "Waive etiquette!--why, sir,
+we have no quarrel with you; never saw you before."
+
+"Well, now, isn't this hard?" said Mr. O'Gorman, addressing his friend,
+who stood by with a pistol-case under his arm; "but I told Mark that I
+was sure they'd be standing upon punctilio, for they were English.  Well,
+sir," said he, turning towards Curzon, "there's but one way to arrange it
+now, that I see.  Mr. Fitzpatrick, you must know, was arrested this
+morning for a trifle of L140.  If you or your friend there, will join us
+in the bail we can get him out, and he'll fight you in the morning to
+your satisfaction."
+
+When the astonishment this proposal had created subsided, we assured
+Mr. O'Gorman that we were noways disposed to pay such a price for our
+amusement--a fact that seemed considerably to surprise both him and his
+friend--and adding, that to Mr. Fitzpatrick personally, we should feel
+bound to hold ourselves pledged at a future period, we left the ground,
+Curzon laughing heartily at the original expedient thus suggested, and I
+inwardly pronounced a most glowing eulogy on the law of imprisonment for
+debt.
+
+Before Mr. Fitzpatrick obtained the benefit of the act, we were ordered
+abroad, and I have never since heard of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE TWO LETTERS.
+
+From the digression of the last chapter I was recalled by the sight of
+the two letters which lay during my reverie unopened before me.  I first
+broke the seal of Lady Callonby's epistle, which ran thus:
+
+     "Munich, La Croix Blanche,
+
+     "My dear Mr. Lorrequer--I have just heard from Kilkee, that you are
+     at length about to pay us your long promised visit, and write these
+     few lines to beg that before leaving Paris you will kindly execute
+     for me the commissions of which I enclose a formidable list, or at
+     least as many of them as you can conveniently accomplish.  Our stay
+     here now will be short, that it will require all your despatch to
+     overtake us before reaching Milan, Lady Jane's health requiring an
+     immediate change of climate.  Our present plans are, to winter in
+     Italy, although such will interfere considerably with Lord Callonby,
+     who is pressed much by his friends to accept office.  However, all
+     this and our other gossip I reserve for our meeting.  Meanwhile,
+     adieu, and if any of my tasks bore you, omit them at once, except
+     the white roses and the Brussels veil, which Lady Jane is most
+     anxious for.
+
+                                   "Sincerely yours,
+                                             "Charlotte Callonby."
+
+How much did these few and apparently common-place lines convey to me?
+First, my visit was not only expected, but actually looked forward to,
+canvassed--perhaps I might almost whisper to myself the flattery--wished
+for.  Again, Lady Jane's health was spoken of as precarious, less actual
+illness--I said to myself--than mere delicacy requiring the bluer sky and
+warmer airs of Italy.  Perhaps her spirits were affected--some mental
+malady--some ill-placed passion--que sais je?  In fact my brain run on
+so fast in its devisings, that by a quick process, less logical than
+pleasing, I satisfied myself that the lovely Lady Jane Callonby was
+actually in love, with whom let the reader guess at.  And Lord Callonby
+too, about to join the ministry--well, all the better to have one's
+father-in-law in power--promotion is so cursed slow now a-days.  And
+lastly, the sly allusion to the commissions--the mechancete of
+introducing her name to interest me.  With such materials as these to
+build upon, frail as they may seem to others, I found no difficulty in
+regarding myself as the dear friend of the family, and the acknowledged
+suitor of Lady Jane.
+
+In the midst, however, of all my self-gratulation, my eye fell upon the
+letter of Emily Bingham, and I suddenly remembered how fatal to all such
+happy anticipations it might prove.  I tore it open in passionate haste
+and read--
+
+     "My dear Mr. Lorrequer--As from the interview we have had this
+     morning I am inclined to believe that I have gained your affections,
+     I think that I should ill requite such a state of your feeling for
+     me, were I to conceal that I cannot return you mine--in fact they
+     are not mine to bestow.  This frank avowal, whatever pain it may
+     have cost me, I think I owe to you to make.  You will perhaps say,
+     the confession should have been earlier; to which I reply, it should
+     have been so, had I known, or even guessed at the nature of your
+     feelings for me.  For--and I write it in all truth, and perfect
+     respect for you--I only saw in your attentions the flirting habits
+     of a man of the world, with a very uninformed and ignorant girl of
+     eighteen, with whom as it was his amusement to travel, he deemed it
+     worth his while to talk.  I now see, and bitterly regret my error,
+     yet deem it better to make this painful confession than suffer you
+     to remain in a delusion which may involve your happiness in the
+     wreck of mine.  I am most faithfully your friend,
+
+                                        "Emily Bingham."
+
+What a charming girl she is, I cried, as I finished the letter; how full
+of true feeling, how honourably, how straight-forward: and yet it is
+devilish strange how cunningly she played her part--and it seems now that
+I never did touch her affections; Master Harry, I begin to fear you are
+not altogether the awful lady-killer you have been thinking.  Thus did I
+meditate upon this singular note--my delight at being once more "free"
+mingling with some chagrin that I was jockied, and by a young miss of
+eighteen, too.  Confoundedly disagreeable if the mess knew it, thought I.
+Per Baccho--how they would quiz upon my difficulty to break off a match,
+when the lady was only anxious to get rid of me.
+
+This affair must never come to their ears, or I am ruined; and now, the
+sooner all negociations are concluded the better.  I must obtain a
+meeting with Emily.  Acknowledge the truth and justice of all her views,
+express my deep regret at the issue of the affair, slily hint that I have
+been merely playing her own game back upon her; for it would be the devil
+to let her go off with the idea that she had singed me, yet never caught
+fire herself; so that we both shall draw stakes, and part friends.
+
+This valiant resolution taken, I wrote a very short note, begging an
+interview, and proceeded to make as formidable a toilet as I could for
+the forthcoming meeting; before I had concluded which, a verbal answer by
+her maid informed me, that "Miss Bingham was alone, and ready to receive
+me."
+
+As I took my way along the corridor, I could not help feeling that among
+all my singular scrapes and embarassing situations through life, my
+present mission was certainly not the least--the difficulty, such as it
+was, being considerably increased by my own confounded "amour propre,"
+that would not leave me satisfied with obtaining my liberty, if I could
+not insist upon coming off scathless also.  In fact, I was not content to
+evacuate the fortress, if I were not to march out with all the honours of
+war.  This feeling I neither attempt to palliate nor defend, I merely
+chronicle it as, are too many of these confessions, a matter of truth,
+yet not the less a subject for sorrow.
+
+My hand was upon the lock of the door.  I stopped, hesitated, and
+listened.  I certainly heard something.  Yes, it is too true--she is
+sobbing.  What a total overthrow to all my selfish resolves, all my
+egotistical plans, did that slight cadence give.  She was crying--her
+tears for the bitter pain she concluded I was suffering--mingling
+doubtless with sorrow for her own sources of grief--for it was clear to
+me that whoever may have been my favoured rival, the attachment was
+either unknown to, or unsanctioned by the mother.  I wished I had not
+listened; all my determinations were completely routed and as I opened
+the door I felt my heart beating almost audibly against my side.
+
+In a subdued half-light--tempered through the rose-coloured curtains,
+with a small sevres cup of newly-plucked moss-roses upon the table--sat,
+or rather leaned, Emily Bingham, her face buried in her hands as
+I entered.  She did not hear my approach, so that I had above a minute
+to admire the graceful character of her head, and the fine undulating
+curve of her neck and shoulders, before I spoke.
+
+"Miss Bingham," said I--
+
+She started--looked up--her dark blue eyes, brilliant though tearful,
+were fixed upon me for a second, as if searching my very inmost thoughts.
+She held out her hand, and turning her head aside, made room for me on
+the sofa beside her.  Strange girl, thought I, that in the very moment
+of breaking with a man for ever, puts on her most fascinating toilette
+--arrays herself in her most bewitching manner, and gives him a reception
+only calculated to turn his head, and render him ten times more in love
+than ever.  Her hand, which remained still in mine, was burning as if in
+fever, and the convulsive movement of her neck and shoulders showed me
+how much this meeting cost her.  We were both silent, till at length,
+feeling that any chance interruption might leave us as far as ever from
+understanding each other, I resolved to begin.
+
+"My dear, dear Emily," I said, "do not I entreat of you add to the misery
+I am this moment enduring by letting me see you thus.  Whatever your
+wrongs towards me, this is far too heavy a retribution.  My object was
+never to make you wretched, if I am not to obtain the bliss, to strive
+and make you happy."
+
+"Oh, Harry"--this was the first time she had ever so called me--"how like
+you, to think of me--of me, at such a time, as if I was not the cause of
+all our present unhappiness--but not wilfully, not intentionally.  Oh,
+no, no--your attentions--the flattery of your notice, took me at once,
+and, in the gratification of my self-esteem, I forgot all else.  I heard,
+too, that you were engaged to another, and believing, as I did, that you
+were trifling with my affections, I spared no effort to win your's.  I
+confess it, I wished this with all my soul."
+
+"And now," said I, "that you have gained them"--Here was a pretty sequel
+to my well matured plans!--"And now Emily"--
+
+"But have I really done so?" said she, hurriedly turning round and fixing
+her large full eyes upon me, while one of her hands played convulsively
+through my hair--"have I your heart? your whole heart?"
+
+"Can you doubt it, dearest," said I, passionately pressing her to my
+bosom; and at the same time muttering, "What the devil's in the wind now;
+we are surely not going to patch up our separation, and make love in
+earnest."
+
+There she lay, her head upon my shoulder, her long, brown, waving
+ringlets falling loosely across my face and on my bosom, her hand in
+mine.  What were her thoughts I cannot guess--mine, God forgive me, were
+a fervent wish either for her mother's appearance, or that the hotel
+would suddenly take fire, or some other extensive calamity arise to put
+the finishing stroke to this embarassing situation.
+
+None of these, however, were destined to occur; and Emily lay still and
+motionless as she was, scarce seeming to breathe, and pale as death.
+What can this mean, said I, surely this is not the usual way to treat
+with a rejected suitor; if it be, why then, by Jupiter the successful one
+must have rather the worst of it--and I fervently hope that Lady Jane be
+not at this moment giving his conge to some disappointed swain.  She
+slowly raised her long, black fringed eyelids, and looked into my face,
+with an expression at once so tender and so plaintive, that I felt a
+struggle within myself whether to press her to my heart, or--what the
+deuce was the alternative.  I hope my reader knows, for I really do not.
+And after all, thought I, if we are to marry, I am only anticipating a
+little; and if not, why then a "chaste salute," as Winifred Jenkins calls
+it, she'll be none the worse for.  Acting at once upon this resolve, I
+leaned downwards, and passing back her ringlets from her now flushed
+cheek, I was startled by my name, which I heard called several times in
+the corridor.  The door at the same instant was burst suddenly open, and
+Trevanion appeared.
+
+"Harry, Harry Lorrequer," cried he, as he entered; then suddenly checking
+himself, added "a thousand, ten thousand pardons.  But--"
+
+"But what," cried I passionately, forgetting all save the situation of
+poor Emily at the moment, "what can justify--"
+
+"Nothing certainly can justify such an intrusion," said Trevanion,
+finishing my sentence for me, "except the very near danger you run this
+moment in being arrested.  O'Leary's imprudence has compromised your
+safety, and you must leave Paris within an hour."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Trevanion," said Emily, who by this time had regained a more
+befitting attitude, "pray speak out; what is it? is Harry--is Mr.
+Lorrequer, I mean, in any danger?"
+
+"Nothing of consequence, Miss Bingham, if he only act with prudence, and
+be guided by his friends.  Lorrequer, you will find me in your apartments
+in half an hour--till then, adieu."
+
+While Emily poured forth question after question, as to the nature and
+extent of my present difficulty, I could not help thinking of the tact
+by which Trevanion escaped, leaving me to make my adieux to Emily as best
+I might--for I saw in a glance that I must leave Paris at once.
+I, therefore, briefly gave her to understand the affair at the salon
+--which I suspected to be the cause of the threatened arrest--and was
+about to profess my unaltered and unalterable attachment, when she
+suddenly stopped me.
+
+"No, Mr. Lorrequer, no.  All is over between us.  We must never meet
+again--never.  We have been both playing a part.  Good by--good by: do
+not altogether forget me--and once more, Harry good by."
+
+What I might have said, thought, or done, I know not; but the arrival of
+Mrs. Bingham's carriage at the door left no time for any thing but
+escape.  So, once more pressing her hand firmly to my lips, I said--"au
+revoir, Emily, au revoir, not good by," and rushing from the room,
+regained my own, just as Mrs. Bingham reached the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+MR. O'LEARY'S CAPTURE.
+
+Does she really care for me? was my first question to myself as I left
+the room.  Is this story about pre-engaged affections merely a got up
+thing, to try the force of my attachment for her? for, if not, her
+conduct is most inexplicable; and great as my experience has been in
+such affairs, I avow myself out maneuvered.  While I thought over this
+difficulty, Trevanion came up, and in a few words, informed me more fully
+upon what he hinted at before.  It appeared that O'Leary, much more alive
+to the imperative necessity of avoiding detection by his sposa, than of
+involving himself with the police, had thrown out most dark and
+mysterious hints in the hotel as to the reason of his residence at Paris;
+fully impressed with the idea that, to be a good Pole, he need only talk
+"revolutionary;" devote to the powers below, all kings, czars, and
+kaisers; weep over the wrongs of his nation; wear rather seedy
+habiliments, and smoke profusely.  The latter were with him easy
+conditions, and he so completely acted the former to the life, that he
+had been that morning arrested in the Tuilleries gardens, under several
+treasonable charges--among others, the conspiracy, with some of his
+compatriots to murder the minister of war.
+
+However laughable such an accusation against poor O'Leary, one
+circumstance rendered the matter any thing but ludicrous.  Although he
+must come off free of this grave offence, yet, the salon transaction
+would necessarily now become known; I should be immediately involved,
+and my departure from Paris prevented.
+
+"So," said Trevanion, as he briefly laid before me the difficulty of my
+position, "you may perceive that however strongly your affections may be
+engaged in a certain quarter, it is quite as well to think of leaving
+Paris without delay.  O'Leary's arrest will be followed by yours, depend
+upon it; and once under the surveillance of the police, escape is
+impossible."
+
+"But, seriously, Trevanion," said I, nettled at the tone of raillery he
+spoke in, "you must see that there is nothing whatever in that business.
+I was merely taking my farewell of the fair Emily.  Her affections have
+been long since engaged, and I--"
+
+"Only endeavouring to support her in her attachment to the more favoured
+rival.  Is it not so?"
+
+"Come, no quizzing.  Faith I began to feel very uncomfortable about
+parting with her, the moment that I discovered that I must do so."
+
+"So I guessed," said Trevanion, with a dry look, "from the interesting
+scene I so abruptly trespassed upon.  But you are right; a little bit of
+tendresse is never misplaced, so long as the object is young, pretty, and
+still more than all, disposed for it."
+
+"Quite out; perfectly mistaken, believe me.  Emily not only never cared
+for me; but she has gone far enough to tell me so."
+
+"Then, from all I know of such matters," replied he, "you were both in a
+very fair way to repair that mistake on her part.  But hark! what is
+this?"  A tremendous noise in the street here interrupted our colloquy,
+and on opening the window, a strange scene presented itself to our eyes.
+In the middle of a dense mass of moving rabble, shouting, yelling, and
+screaming, with all their might, were two gens d'armes with a prisoner
+between them.  The unhappy man was followed by a rather well-dressed,
+middle-aged looking woman, who appeared to be desirous of bestowing the
+most covam publico endearments upon the culprit, whom a second glance
+showed us was O'Leary.
+
+"I tell you, my dear madam, you are mistaken," said O'Leary, addressing
+her with great sternness of manner and voice.
+
+"Mistaken! Never, never.  How could I ever be mistaken in that dear
+voice, those lovely eyes, that sweet little nose?"
+
+"Take her away; she's deranged," said O'Leary to the gens d'armes.
+"Sure, if I'm a Pole, that's enough of misfortune."
+
+"I'll follow him to the end of the earth, I will."
+
+"I'm going to the galleys, God be praised," said O'Leary.
+
+"To the galleys--to the guillotine--any where," responded she, throwing
+herself upon his neck, much less, as it seemed, to his gratification,
+than that of the mob, who laughed and shouted most uproariously.
+
+"Mrs. Ram, ain't you ashamed?"
+
+"He calls me by my name," said she, "and he attempts to disown me.  Ha!
+ha! ha! ha!" and immediately fell off into a strong paroxysm of kicking,
+and pinching, and punching the bystanders, a malady well known under the
+name of hysterics; but being little more than a privileged mode, among
+certain ladies, of paying off some scores, which it is not thought decent
+to do in their more sober moments.
+
+"Lead me away--anywhere--convict me of what you like," said he, "but
+don't let her follow me."
+
+The gens d'armes, who little comprehended the nature of the scene before
+them, were not sorry to anticipate a renewal of it on Mrs. Ram's
+recovery, and accordingly seized the opportunity to march on with
+O'Leary, who turned the corner of the Rue Rivoli, under a shower of
+"meurtriers" and "scelerats" from the mob, that fell fortunately most
+unconsciously upon his ears.
+
+The possibility of figuring in such a procession contributed much to the
+force of Trevanion's reasonings, and I resolved to leave Paris at once.
+
+"Promise me, then, to involve yourself in no more scrapes for
+half-an-hour.  Pack every thing you shall want with you, and, by seven
+o'clock, I shall be here with your passport and all ready for a start."
+
+With a beating brain, and in a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts, I threw
+my clothes hither and thither into my trunk; Lady Jane and Emily both
+flitting every instant before my imagination, and frequently an
+irresolution to proceed stopping all my preparations for departure, I sat
+down musing upon a chair, and half determined to stay where I was, coute
+qui coute.  Finally, the possibility of exposure in a trial, had its
+weight.  I continued my occupation till the last coat was folded, and the
+lock turned, when I seated myself opposite my luggage, and waited
+impatiently for my friend's return.
+
+
+
+EBOOK EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Devilish hot work, this, said the colonel
+Empty, valueless, heartless flirtation
+Enough is as good as a feast
+Finish in sorrow what you have begun in folly
+Gardez vous des femmes, and more especially if they be Irish
+Jaunting-cars, with three on a side and "one in the well"
+Mistaking zeal for inclination
+Other bottle of claret that lies beyond the frontier of prudence
+Packed jury of her relatives, who rarely recommend you to mercy
+There is no infatuation like the taste for flirtation
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer,
+Vol. 5, by Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRY LORREQUER, VOL. 5 ***
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