t-horses for Zurich. It was and is a master-piece of
the bewildering imbroglio style. Cultivate your great gifts,
then, my friend. You will be a treasure to the court of
Cresswell, and the most injured of men or the basest of
seducers will not be able at the end of a suit to say which
must kneel down and ask pardon of the other. I suppose I
ought to say I'm sorry for Barnard, but I can't. No, Algy, I
cannot. He was an arrant snob, and, if he had lived, he'd
have gone about telling the most absurd stories and getting
people to believe them, just on the faith of his stupidity.
If there is a ridiculous charge in the world, it is that of
'firing before one's time,' which, to make the most of it,
must be a matter of seconds, and involves, besides, a
question as to the higher inflammability of one's powder. I
don't care who made mine, but I know it did its work well.
I'm glad, however, that you did not deign to notice that
contemptible allegation, and merely limited yourself to what
resulted. Your initials and the stars showered over the
paragraph, are in the highest walk of legerdemain, and I can
no more trace relatives to antecedents, than I can tell what
has become of the _egg_ I saw Houdin smash in my hat.

"I know, however, I mustn't come back just yet There is that
shake-of-the-headiness abroad that makes one uncomfortable.
Fortunately, this is no-sacrifice to me. My debts keep me
out of London, just as effectually as my morals. Besides
this, my dear Algy, I'm living in the very deepest of
clover, domesticated with a maiden aunt and two lovely
nieces, in a villa on an Italian lake, my life and comforts
being the especial care of the triad. Imagine an infant-
school occupied in the care of a young tiger of the spotted
species, and you may, as the Yankees say, realise the
situation. But they seem to enjoy the peril of what they are
doing, or they don't see it, I can't tell which.

"'Gazetted out,' you say; 'Meno male,' as they say here. I
might have been promoted, and so tempted to go back to that
land of Bores, Bearers, and Bungalores, and I am grateful to
the stumble that saves me from a fall. But you ask, what do
I mean to do? and I own I do not see my way to anything.
Time was when gentleman-riding, coach-driving, or billiards,