u now to
go to my uncle at our hotel. Keep him quiet till I come. Say I had to see
you--say anything. I shall be there by the dinner hour. Rip! I must talk
to you alone after dinner."

Ripton feebly attempted to reply that he was due at home. He was very
curious to hear the plot of the New Comedy; and besides, there was
Richard's face questioning him sternly and confidently for signs of
unhesitating obedience. He finished his grimaces by asking the name and
direction of the hotel. Richard pressed his hand. It is much to obtain
even that recognition of our devotion from the hero.

Tom Bakewell also received his priming, and, to judge by his chuckles and
grins, rather appeared to enjoy the work cut out for him. In a few
minutes they had driven to their separate destinations; Ripton was left
to the unusual exercise of his fancy. Such is the nature of youth and its
thirst for romance, that only to act as a subordinate is pleasant. When
one unfurls the standard of defiance to parents and guardians, he may be
sure of raising a lawless troop of adolescent ruffians, born rebels, to
any amount. The beardless crew know that they have not a chance of pay;
but what of that when the rosy prospect of thwarting their elders is in
view? Though it is to see another eat the Forbidden Fruit, they will run
all his risks with him. Gaily Ripton took rank as lieutenant in the
enterprise, and the moment his heart had sworn the oaths, he was rewarded
by an exquisite sense of the charms of existence. London streets wore a
sly laugh to him. He walked with a dandified heel. The generous youth
ogled aristocratic carriages, and glanced intimately at the ladies,
overflowingly happy. The crossing-sweepers blessed him. He hummed lively
tunes, he turned over old jokes in his mouth unctuously, he hugged
himself, he had a mind to dance down Piccadilly, and all because a friend
of his was running away with a pretty girl, and he was in the secret.

It was only when he stood on the doorstep of Richard's hotel, that his
jocund mood was a little dashed by remembering that he had then to
commence the duties of his office, and must fabricate a plausible story
to account for what he knew nothing about--a part that the greatest of
sages would find it difficult to perform. The young, however, whom sages
well may envy, seldom fail in lifting their inventive faculties to the
level of their spirits, and two minutes of Hippias's angry complaints
against the friend he