so that though I might call you a consummate humbug, I
could n't say as much to a Vice-Admiral without the risk of being judged
by professional etiquette.'

"'But you did n't call him that, did you?' said I.

"'I 'll call _you_ worse, Cutty,' says he, laughing, 'if you don't take
your wine.'

"'And now, Jack,' said I, 'it's on the stroke of one; I must start with
the express at one-forty, and as I came down here for nothing on earth
but to see if I could be of any use to you, don't let me go away only as
wise as I came; be frank and tell me all about this business, and when
I go back to town it will push me hard if I can't do something with the
Somerset House fellows to pull you through.'

"'You are a good-hearted dog, Cutty,' says he, 'and I thought so the
first day I saw you; but my scrape, as you call it, is just one of those
things you 'd only blunder in. My fine brother Temple, or that much
finer gentleman, Lord Culduff, who can split words into the thinnest of
veneers, might possibly make such a confusion that it would be hard
to see who was right or who was wrong in the whole affair; but _you_,
Cutty, with your honest intentions and your vulgar good sense, would be
sure to offend every one, There, don't lose your train; don't forget the
cheroots and the punch, and some pleasant books, if they be writing any
such just now.'

"'If you want money,' said I,--'I mean for the defence.'

"'Not sixpence for the lawyers, Cutty; of that you may take your
oath,' said he, as he shook my hand. 'I 'd as soon think of sending the
wardroom dinner overboard to the sharks.' We parted, and the next thing
I saw of him was that paragraph in the 'Times.'"

"How misfortunes thicken around us. About a month or six weeks ago,
when you came down here first, I suppose there was n't a family in the
kingdom could call itself happier."

"You _did_ look jolly, that I _will_ say; but somehow--you 'll not take
the remark ill--I saw that, as we rail-folk say, it was a capital line
for ordinary regular traffic, but would be sure to break down if you had
a press of business."

"I don't understand you."

"I mean that, so long as it was only a life of daily pleasure and
enjoyment was before you,--that the gravest question of the day was what
horse you 'd ride, or whom you 'd invite to dinner,--so long as that
lasted the machine would work well,--no jar, no friction anywhere; but
if once trouble--and I mean real trouble--was to come down