Watkins did not say anything very remarkable
or striking, but he looked at me with a sort
of inquisitive penetration, that I felt it in the
marrow of my bones. I have seen a poor juggler
at a fair displaying his tricks to an admiring
audience of rustics, suddenly paralysed by
perceiving a certain man in the crowd of his own
profession, who knew how the pancakes were
made in the hat, and how the chickens came out
of the snuff-box, and who dreaded whether he
might not, in a fit of jealousy, or mere levity,
reveal all the secrets. I cannot find anything
so much alike my terror as this. " Yes," thought
I, " Watkins knows it;" and my heart sickened
as I said it. Watkins sees how it is done!
Oh, the bitterness of that moment! I felt as
might Arkwright, or some other of these great
mechanical geniuses, on finding that another had
hit upon the invention he had deemed his own—
had found out that little simple contrivance,
that peg, or screw, or spring, or whatever it
was, that worked the whole machinery, and for
a moment— only for a moment— though my
heart conceived very wicked and horrible designs.

Watkins watched me; his eye never quitted
me throughout the day. It was on me as I
sipped my curacoa, as I smoked my cigar, as I
sat at whist. I could not score the trick without
feeling that Watkins remarked it, and when
I marked the honours I mechanically turned
round in my seat and recorded the fact to him.
I was delighted when the time came that I
could get away, and, observing him in close
converse with the major, I seized the opportunity
to say a hurried good night to my
own friend, and departed. Scarcely, however,
had I gained the street, when I heard a voice
behind me:

"May I join you?"

It was Watkins. He hoped, or he knew,
or he believed— I can't say which— that
our roads lay together, and away we walked,
side by side. I cannot in the least explain it.
I have not the very vaguest clue to the reason,
but I remember that, in presence of this man, I
utterly abandoned the system I had adopted
with the world at large, and to which I owed
all my hitherto success in life. I neither played
subordinate nor inferior; nay, I would not even
concur with him in a single proposition he laid
down, nor agree with him in the most
common-place expression of a taste. He praised the
army, and especially the regiment at whose mess
we had just dined; I disparaged the service as
a career, and ridiculed the 9— th as the most
insupportable of "pipeclays." The claret he
called good I declared undrinkable; and the
cigars he protested were abominable I affirmed
to be the best Cubans I ever smoked— in
fact, the only recommendable thing in the
regiment.

"You stop here?' said he, as I reached the
door of my hotel; " an excellent house, too. If
you will permit me, I'll take an early opportunity
to pay my respects to you. You are
occasionally at home of a morning?"

"Scarcely ever. I rise early, and go out
immediately after breakfast."

"The afternoon, then. You have got into
London habit, and like your gossip before
dinner-hour."

"Never, by any chance," said I, curtly.

"Ah, I have it!— the evening is the time to
catch you, sitting in slippered ease over your
cigar. And for real enjoyment, there's nothing
like it. ' Ce cher coin du feu!' as Beranger
says. Good-by; you'll see me one of these
nights, I promise you." And, before I could get
over the choking sensation of my anger, he had
moved away, and was strolling down the street,
humming Bianca Luna.

"See you, indeed! no," I muttered, "if it
cost me a voyage to New Zealand to avoid it.
I'll go out with Garibaldi, or to Dr. Livingstone,
or take a campaign with the Circassians,
or— in short, I'll not live in the same
hemisphere with that man." I passed a miserable
night; wretchedness like that I never knew
before. It was one terrible night, of which this
wretch was the burden. He was everywhere,
and crossed me in everything. When I awoke,
the first thing which met my eye, on my breakfast
table, was a card inscribed Mr. Price Watkins;
and, in one corner, Limner's.

"Said he'd drop in about eleven or half-past,
sir," said the waiter.

"What's the first train out?" cried I, eagerly.

"Where to, sir?"

"What do I care? I want to ^get away.
North, south— anywhere. When can I start?'"

"There's one for Belfast and Antrim at ten
forty, sir. There's another for Athlone at
ten. There's the express for Limerick at ten
five."

"All changed, all altered, since the beginning
of the month," said a harsh voice from the door,
and Watkins entered the room. " Are you on
the move?"

"No, only talking of it; mere talk, nothing
more. Have you breakfasted? May I offer you
a cutlet and a cup of tea?"

"Well— I don't care if I do take something.
Not that I'm a breakfast man: dinner is my
meal— a snug little dinner: not that great noisy
thing we had yesterday, with riotous schoolboys
in shell jackets; but a few men who know
the world, Barnes— men who have seen life and
can talk about it."

Though the familiar use of my name in this
free and easy fashion startled me, I had no time
for remonstrance, for Watkins was already at
table, his napkin on his knee, and his impertinent
eye scanning the objects before him with
a searching scrutiny.

"I'm looking for the Worcester sauce," said
he at last, " the slight garlic flavour it has
improves one's cutlet. Don't rise, pray; Ford will
bring it. Pay attention, Ford, and don't bring
Harvey. That's a grouse, I take it, near
you. What if we had it kept near the fire
while we discuss the cutlet, and a few cold
oysters?"