"I will dine with him; six o'clock shall see
me punctual to the minute, and determined to
avenge the whole insulted family of the Paynters.
I defy him to assert that the provocation came
not from his side. I dare him to show cause
why I should be the butt of his humour, any
more than he of mine. I will be prepared to
make use of his own exact words in repelling
my impertinence, and say, 'Sir, you have
exactly embodied my meaning; you have to the
letter expressed what this morning I felt on
being called Mr. Paynter; you have, besides
this, had the opportunity of experiencing the
sort of pain such an impertinence inflicts, and
you are now in a position to guide you as to
how far you will persist in it for the future.'"

I actually revelled in the thought of this
reprisal, and longed for the moment to come in
which, indolently thrown back in my chair, I
should say, "Bluebottle, pass the Madeira,"
with some comment on the advantage all the
Bluebottles have in getting their wine duty
free. Then, with what sarcastic irony I should
condole with him over his wearisome, dull
career, eternally writing home platitudes for
blue-books, making Grotius into bad grammar,
and vamping up old Puffendorf for popular
reading. "Ain't you sick of it all, B.-B.?" I
should say, familiarly; " is not the unreality of
the whole thing offensive? Don't you feel that
a despatch is a sort of formula in which Madrid
might be inserted for Moscow, and what was
said of Naples might be predicated of Norway?"
I disputed a long time with myself at what pre-
cise period of the entertainment I should
unmask my battery and open fire. Should it be in
the drawing-room, before dinner? Should it be
immediately after the soup, with the first glass
of sherry? Ought I to wait till the dessert,
and that time when a sort of easy intimacy had
been established which might be supposed to
prompt candour and frankness? Would it not
be in better taste to defer it till the servants
had left the room? To expose him to his
household seemed scarcely fair.

These were all knotty points, and I revolved
them long and carefully, as I came back to my
hotel, through the same silent street.

CHAPTER XIV.

"Don't keep a place for me at the table
d'hote to-day, Kramm," said I, in an easy
carelessness; " I dine with his excellency. I couldn't
well get off the first day, but to-morrow I
promise you to pronounce upon your good cheer."

I suppose I am not the first man who has
derived consequence from the invitation it has
cost him misery to accept. How many in this
world of snobbery have felt that the one sole
recompense for long nights of ennui was the
fact that their names figured amongst the dis-
tinguished guests in the next day's Post?

"It is not a grand dinner to-day, is it?"
asked Kramm.

"No, no, a merely family party; we are very
old chums, and have much to talk over."

"You will then go in plain black, and with
nothing but your ' decorations.'"

"I will wear none," said I, "none; not
even a ribbon." And I turned away to hide the
shame and mortification his suggestion had pro-
voked.

Punctually at six o'clock I arrived at the
legation; four powdered footmen were in the
hall, and a decent-looking personage in black
preceded me up the stairs, and opened the
double doors into the drawing-room, without,
however, announcing me, or paying the slightest
attention to my mention of " Mr. Pottinger."

Laying down his newspaper as I entered, his
excellency came forward with his hand out, and
though it was the least imaginable touch, and
his bow was grandly ceremonious, his smile was
courteous and his manner bland.

"Charmed to find you know the merit of
punctuality," said he. "To the untravelled
English, six means seven, or even later. You
may serve dinner, Robins. Strange weather we
are having," continued he, turning to me;
"cold, raw, and uncongenial."

We talked " barometer" till, the door opening,
the maître d'hôtel announced, " His excellency
is served;" a rather unpolite mode, I thought,
of ignoring his company, and which was even
more strongly impressed by the fact that he
walked in first, leaving me to follow.

At the table a third " cover" was just being
speedily removed as we entered, a fact that
smote at my heart like a blow. The dinner
began, and went on with little said; a faint
question from the minister as to what the dish
contained and a whispered reply constituted
most of the talk, and an occasional cold
recommendation to me to try this or that entrée. It
was admirable in all its details, the cookery
exquisite, the wines delicious, but there was an
oppression in the solemnity of it all that made
me sigh repeatedly. Had the butler been serving
a high mass his motions at the sideboard could
scarcely have been more reverential.

"If you don't object to the open air, we'll
take our coffee on the terrace," said his
excellency; and we soon found ourselves on a most
charming elevation, surrounded on three sides
with orange-trees, the fourth opening a
magnificent view over a fine landscape with the Taunus
mountains in the distance.

"I can offer you at least a good cigar," said
the minister, as he selected with great care two
from the number on a silver plateau before him.
"These, I think, you will find recommendable;
they are grown for myself at Cuba, and
prepared after a receipt only known to one family."

In all this there was a dignified civility, not
at all like the impertinent freedom of his manner
in the morning. He never, besides, addressed
me as Mr. Paynter; in fact, he did not advert
to a name at all, not giving me the slightest
pretext for that reprisal I had come so charged
with; and as to opening the campaign myself, I'd
as soon have commenced acquaintance with a
tiger by a pull at his tail. We were now alone;
the servants had retired, and there we sat,