the peril, because it involved no danger to
yourself?"'"

"Would that same conscience be kind enough
to suggest that your present conduct is an
impertinence, sir?"

"So it might, madam; just as the pilot is
impertinent when he cries out 'Hard, port! breakers
ahead!'"

"I am therefore to infer, sir," said she, with
a calm dignity, "that my approach to a secret
danger—of which I can have no knowledge—is
a sufficient excuse for the employment of
language on your part that, under a less urgent
plea, had been offensive?"

"You are," said I, boldly.

"Speak out, then, sir, and declare what it
is."

"Nay, madam, if the warning find no echo
within, my words are useless. I have said I
would ask you a question."

"Well, sir, do so."

"Will you answer it frankly? Will you give
it all the weight and influence it should bear,
and reply to it with that truthful spirit
that conceals nothing?"

"What is your question, sir? You had
better be speedy with it, for I don't much trust
to my continued patience."

I arose at this, and, passing behind the back of
my chair, leaned my arms on the upper rail, so as
to confront her directly; and then, in the voice of
an accusing angel, I said, "Old woman, do you
know where you are going?"

"I protest, sir," said she, rising, with an
indignation I shall not forget—"I protest, sir, you
make me actually doubt if I know where I am!"

"Then let me tell you, madam," said I, with
the voice of one determined to strike terror into
her heart—"let me tell you; and may my
words have the power to awaken you, even now,
to the dreadful consequences of what you are
about!"

"Shalley! Shalley!" cried she, in amazement,
"is this gentleman deranged, or is it but the
passing effect of your conviviality?" And with
this she swept out of the room, leaving me there
alone, for I now perceived—what seemed also
to have escaped her—that the minister had
slipped quietly away some time before, and
was doubtless at that same moment in the
profoundest of slumbers.

I took my departure at once. There were
no leave-takings to delay me, and I left the
house in a mood little according with the spirit
of one who had partaken of its hospitalities.
I am constrained to admit I was the very
reverse of satisfied with myself. It was cowardly
and mean of me to wreak my anger on that old
woman, and not upon him who was the really
great offender. He it was I should have
arraigned; and with the employment of a little
artifice and some tact, how terrible I might have
made even my jesting levity! how sarcastic my
sneers at fashionable vice! Affecting utter
ignorance about his life and habits, I could have
incidentally thrown out little episodes of all the
men who have wrecked their fortunes by
abandoned habits. I would have pointed to this
man who made a brilliant opening in the House,
and that who had acquired such celebrity at the
Bar; I would have shown the rising statesman
tarnished, the future chief justice disqualified;
I would have said, "Let no man, however
modest his station or unfrequented his locality,
imagine that the world takes no note of his
conduct; in every class he is judged by his
peers, and you and I, Doubleton, will as
assuredly be arraigned before the bar of society as
the pickpocket will be charged before the beak!"

I continued to revolve these and such-like
thoughts throughout the entire night. The
wine I had drunk fevered and excited me, and
added to that disturbed state which my own self-
accusings provoked. Doubts, too, flitted across
my mind whether I ought not to have
maintained a perfect silence towards the others, and
reserved all my eloquence for the poor girl
herself. I imagined myself taking her hand between
both mine, while, with averted head, she sobbed
as if her heart would break, and, saying, "Be
comforted, poor stricken deer! be comforted;
I know all. One, who is far from perfect
himself, sorrows with and compassionates you; he
will be your friend, your adviser, your protector.
I will restore you to that home you quitted in
innocence. I will bring you back to that
honeysuckled porch where your pure heart expanded
in home affections. "Nothing shall equal the
refined delicacy of my manner; that mingled
reserve and kindness—a sort of cross between a
half-brother and a canon of St. Paul's—shall win
her over to repentance, and then to peace.
How I fancied myself at intervals of time visiting
that cottage, going, as the gardener watches
some cherished plant, to gaze on the growing
strength I had nurtured, and enjoy the luxury
of seeing the once drooping flower expanding
into fresh loveliness and perfume. "Yes,
Potts, this would form one of those episodes
you have so often longed to realise." And then
I went on to fancy a long heroic struggle between
my love and that sentiment of respect for
worldly opinion which is dear to every man,
the years of conflict wearing me down in health
but exalting me immensely in every moral
consideration. Let the hour of crowning victory
at last come, I should take her to my bosom,
and say, "There is rest for thee here!"

"His excellency begs that you will call at
the legation as early as you can this morning,"
said a waiter, entering with the breakfast tray;
and I now perceived that I had never gone to
bed, or closed my eyes during the night.

"How did this message come?" I asked.

"By the chasseur of his excellency."

"And how addressed?"

"'To the gentleman who dined yesterday at
the legation.'"

I asked these questions to ascertain how far
he persisted in the impertinence of giving me a
name that was not mine, and I was glad to find
that on this occasion no transgression had
occurred.

I hesitated considerably about going to him.