, have ruled him quietly and constitutionally. Now
you have nothing for it but one thing."

"Which is--"

"A revolution! Yes, you must overthrow the whole government, and build
up another out of the smash. Begin to-day. We'll dine together wherever
you like. We'll go to the Scala if it's open. We'll sup--"

"But Fanny?"

"She'll stand by her husband. Though, probably, she'll have you 'up' for
a little private discipline afterwards. Come, don't lose time. I want to
do my cathedral, and my gallery, and my other curiosities in one day,
for I have some matters to settle at Orto before I start for Basle. Have
they a club, a casino, or anything of the sort here, where they play?"

"There is a place they call the Gettone, but I've never been there but
once."

"Well, we'll finish there this evening; for I want to win a little
money, to pay my journey."

"If I can help you--"

"No, no. Not to be thought of. I've got some fifty Naps by me--tame
elephants--that are sure to entrap others. You must come with me to
Basle, Bob. You can't desert me in such a crisis," said Calvert, as they
left the inn together.

"We'll see. I'll think over it. The difficulty will be--"

"The impossibility is worse than a difficulty; and that is what I shall
have to face if you abandon me. Why, only think of it for a moment
Here I am, jilted, out of the army--for I know I shall lose my
commission--without a guinea; you'd not surely wish me to say, without
a friend! If it were not that it would be so selfish, I'd say the step
will be the making of you. You'll have that old bear so civilised on
your return, you'll not know him."

"Do you really think so?"

"I know it. He'll see at once that you'll not stand this sort of
bullying. That if you did, your friends would not stand it. We shan't be
away above four days, and those four days will give him a fright he'll
never forget."

"I'll think over it"

"No. You'll do it--that's better; and I'll promise you--if Mr. Graham
does not enter a fatal objection--to come back with you and stand to you
through your troubles."

Calvert had that about him in his strong will, his resolution, and his
readiness at reply, which exercised no mean despotism over the fellows
of his own age. And it was only they who disliked and avoided him who
ever resisted him. Barnard was an easy victim, and before the day drew
to its close., he had got to believe that it was by a rare stroke of
fortune Calvert had come t