ht up the last word. "Do you think of going there?"

"Going there!" shouted out the other, in a voice that made misconception
impossible. "About as soon as I should take lodgings in Wapping for
country air!"

This speech brought them to the door of the drawing-room, into which
Haggerstone now entered, with that peculiar step which struck him as
combining the jaunty slide of a man of fashion with the martial tread of
an old soldier.

"Ha! my old adherents,----all my faithful ones!" sighed Mrs. Ricketts,
giving a hand to each to kiss; and then, in a voice of deep emotion,
she said, "Bless you both! May peace and happiness be beneath your
roof-trees! joy sit beside your hearth!"

Haggerstone reddened a little; for, however alive to the ludicrous in
his neighbors, he was marvellously sensitive as to having a part in the
piece himself.

"You are looking quite yourself again," said he, bluntly.

"The soul, indeed, is unchanged; the spirit--"

"What's become of Purvis?" broke in Haggerstone, who never gave any
quarter to these poetic flights.

"You 'll see him presently. He has been so much fatigued and exhausted
by this horrid police investigation, that he never gets up till late. I
've put him on a course of dandelion and aconite, too; the first effect
of which is always unpleasant."

Leaving Foglass in conclave with the hostess, Haggerstone now approached
the Count, who had for several times performed his toilet operation of
running his hands through his hair, in expectation of being addressed.

"How d'ye do,----any piquet lately?" asked the Colonel, half
cavalierly.

"As if I was tinking of piquet, wid my country in shains! How you can
aske me dat?"

"What did you do with Norwood t'other night?" resumed the other, in a
voice somewhat lower.

"Won four hundred and fifty,--but he no pay!"

"Nor ever will."

"What you say?--not pay me what I wins!"

"Not a sou of it."

"And dis you call English noblemans,--pair d'Angleterre!"

"Hush! Don't be carried away by your feelings. Some men Norwood won't
pay because he does n't know them. There are others he treats the same
way because he _does_ know them,--very equitable, eh?"

The observation seemed more intelligible to the Pole than polite, for he
bit his lip and was silent, while Haggerstone went on,----

"He 's gone, and that, at least, is a point gained; and now that these
Onslows have left this, and that cur Jekyl, we may expect a little
quietness, fo