atering-places. "In any case, Mr. Lorrequer," said he, "we shall hunt
them in couples. I must insist upon your coming along with me."

"Oh! that," said I, "you must not think of. Your carriage is a coupe,
and I cannot think of crowding you."

"Why, you don't seriously want to affront me, I hope, for I flatter
myself that a more perfect carriage for two people cannot be built.
Hobson made it on a plan of my own, and I am excessively proud of it,
I assure you. Come, that matter is decided--now for supper. Are there
many English here just now?--By-the-by, those new 'natives' I think I saw
you standing with on the balcony--who are they?"

"Oh! the ladies--oh! Yes, people I came over with--"

"One was pretty, I fancied. Have you supped? Just order something, will
you--meanwhile, I shall write a few lines before the post leaves."
--Saying which, he dashed up stairs after the waiter, and left me to my
meditations.

"This begins to be pleasant," thought I, as the door closed, leaving me
alone in the "salon." In circumstances of such moment, I had never felt
so nonplussed as now, how to decline Kilkee's invitation, without
discovering my intimacy with the Binghams--and yet I could not, by any
possibility, desert them thus abruptly. Such was the dilemma. "I see
but one thing for it," said I, gloomily, as I strode through the
coffee-room, with my head sunk and my hands behind my back--"I see but
one thing left--I must be taken ill to-night, and not be able to leave
my bed in the morning--a fever--a contagious fever--blue and red spots
all over me--and be raving wildly before breakfast time; and if ever
any discovery takes place of my intimacy above stairs, I must only
establish it as a premonitory symptom of insanity, which seized me in
the packet. And now for a doctor that will understand my case, and
listen to reason, as they would call it in Ireland." With this idea
uppermost, I walked out into the court-yard to look for a commissionaire
to guide me in my search. Around on every side of me stood the various
carriages and voitures of the hotel and its inmates, to the full as
distinctive and peculiar in character as their owners. "Ah! there is
Kilkee's," said I, as my eye lighted upon the well-balanced and elegant
little carriage which he had been only with justice encomiumizing. "It
is certainly perfect, and yet I'd give a handful of louis-d'ors it was
like that venerable cabriolet yonder, with the one wheel an