let him alone, my Lord,' said another. 'Take no notice of him.'

"'I say, Grindle,' cried a tall thin man with moustaches, 'who let these
people inside the ring?'

"'They forces their way, my Lud,' said a little knocker-kneed creature,
in a coat four times too big for him, 'and I says to Bill, de--pend upon
it, Bill, them's the swell mob.'

"The words were scarcely out of the fellow's mouth when a general cry
of the 'swell mob' resounded on every side, and at once they closed upon
us, some pushing, others elbowing, driving, and forcing, so that what
with the dense crowd, and the tight hold Kennyfeck now kept of me, I was
pinioned, and could do nothing. At last, by a vigorous twist, I shook
them off from me, and laid two of the foremost at my feet. This I did
with a Mexican trick I saw they knew nothing about. You first make a
feint at the face, and then, dropping on the knee, seize the fellow by
both legs, and hurl him back on his head,--just stand up, I 'll not hurt
you."

"Thank you,--I understand the description perfectly," said Mr. Softly,
pale with terror at the proposed experiment.

"Well, the remainder is soon told. They now got in upon us, and of
course I need n't say we got confoundedly thrashed. Kennyfeck was
tumbled about like a football; every one that had nothing else to do had
a kick at him, and there 's no saying how it might have ended had not a
certain Sir George Somebody recognized our poor friend, and rescued him.
I 'm not quite sure that I was quite myself about this time; Kennyfeck
has some story of my getting on some one's horse, and riding about the
course in search of the originators of the fray. The end of it, however,
was, we reached Liverpool with sorer bones than was altogether pleasant,
and although, when Kennyfeck went to bed, I went to the theatre, the
noise only increased my headache, and it needed a good night's sleep to
set me all right again."

"Mr. Kennyfeck taken for one of the swell mob!" exclaimed Softly, with
a sort of holy horror that seemed to sum up his whole opinion of the
narrative.

"Very bad, was n't it?" said Cashel, pushing the wine past; "but he's a
capital fellow,--took the whole thing in such good part, and seems
only anxious that the story should n't get abroad. Of course I need n't
repeat my caution on that subject?"

"Oh, certainly not! Shall we join the ladies?" said Mr. Jones, as he
surveyed his whiskers and arranged the tie of his cravat before the
gla