h him!--and you with
him!"

"And yet, my lord," said Mr. Archer, "these good people will have as
keen a sense of loss as you or I; keener, perhaps, since they have done
nothing to deserve it."

"Deserve it?" cried the peer. "What? What? If a rascally highwayman
comes up to me with a confounded pistol, do you say that I've deserved
it? How often am I to tell you, sir, that I was cheated--that I was
cheated?"

"You are happy in the belief," returned Mr. Archer gravely.

"Archer, you would be the death of me!" exclaimed his lordship. "You
know you're drunk; you know it, sir; and yet you can't get up a spark of
animation."

"I have drunk fair, my lord," replied the younger man; "but I own I am
conscious of no exhilaration."

"If you had as black a look-out as me, sir," cried the peer, "you would
be very glad of a little innocent exhilaration, let me tell you. I am
glad of it--glad of it, and I only wish I was drunker. For let me tell
you it's a cruel hard thing upon a man of my time of life and my
position, to be brought down to beggary because the world is full of
thieves and rascals--thieves and rascals. What? For all I know, you may
be a thief and a rascal yourself; and I would fight you for a pinch of
snuff--a pinch of snuff," exclaimed his lordship.

Here Mr. Archer turned to Nance Holdaway with a pleasant smile, so full
of sweetness, kindness, and composure that, at one bound, her dreams
returned to her. "My good Miss Holdaway," said he, "if you are willing
to show me the road, I am even eager to be gone. As for his lordship
and myself, compose yourself; there is no fear; this is his lordship's
way."

"What? what?" cried his lordship. "My way? Ish no such a thing, my way."

"Come, my lord," cried Archer; "you and I very thoroughly understand
each other; and let me suggest, it is time that both of us were gone.
The mail will soon be due. Here, then, my lord, I take my leave of you,
with the most earnest assurance of my gratitude for the past, and a
sincere offer of any services I may be able to render in the future."

"Archer," exclaimed Lord Windermoor, "I love you like a son. Le' 's have
another bowl."

"My lord, for both our sakes, you will excuse me," replied Mr. Archer.
"We both require caution; we must both, for some while at least, avoid
the chance of a pursuit."

"Archer," quoth his lordship, "this is a rank ingratishood. What? I'm to
go firing away in the dark in the cold po'chaise, and not so