else. And there seemed no reason why he should abandon his search for a
generation or two, for it would probably take all that time to convince
him that that mighty monarch was no longer on the throne.

"It would have been too brutal to tell him myself," thought Horace,
"when he was so keen on having his case reheard. And it gives him an
object, poor old buffer, and keeps him from interfering in my affairs,
so it's best for both of us."

Horace's little dinner-party had been twice postponed, till he had begun
to have a superstitious fear that it would never come off; but at length
the Professor had been induced to give an absolute promise for a certain
evening.

On the day before, after breakfast, Horace had summoned his landlady to
a consultation on the _menu_. "Nothing elaborate, you know, Mrs.
Rapkin," said Horace, who, though he would have liked to provide a feast
of all procurable delicacies for Sylvia's refection, was obliged to
respect her father's prejudices. "Just a simple dinner, thoroughly well
cooked, and nicely served--as you know so well how to do it."

"I suppose, sir, you would require Rapkin to wait?"

As the ex-butler was liable to trances on these occasions during which
he could do nothing but smile and bow with speechless politeness as he
dropped sauce-boats and plates, Horace replied that he thought of having
someone in to avoid troubling Mr. Rapkin; but his wife expressed such
confidence in her husband's proving equal to all emergencies, that
Ventimore waived the point, and left it to her to hire extra help if she
thought fit.

"Now, what soup can you give us?" he inquired, as Mrs. Rapkin stood at
attention and quite unmollified.

After protracted mental conflict, she grudgingly suggested gravy
soup--which Horace thought too unenterprising, and rejected in favour of
mock turtle. "Well then, fish?" he continued; "how about fish?"

Mrs. Rapkin dragged the depths of her culinary resources for several
seconds, and finally brought to the surface what she called "a nice
fried sole." Horace would not hear of it, and urged her to aspire to
salmon; she substituted smelts, which he opposed by a happy inspiration
of turbot and lobster sauce. The sauce, however, presented insuperable
difficulties to her mind, and she offered a compromise in the form of
cod--which he finally accepted as a fish which the Professor could
hardly censure for ostentation.

Next came the no less difficult questions of _ent