to her, Clin--"

The words were no sooner spoken, than the speaker fell to the pavement,
leveled by a heavy blow from the arm of the intruder, and a second blow
sent Quirk, staggering, into the gutter, while at the same moment the
girl was snatched from the now yielding arms of Clinton.

As she gained her feet, she flung back her hair from her eyes, and
looked up in the face of her rescuer.

"Monsieur Wilkins!"

"Good Heavens! is this Blanche?"

At the mention of Wilkins' name, Arthur and Quirk sprang to their feet,
and started on a run down the street, followed by Clinton.

"A devilish muss this," cried Quirk, as they paused on a corner, a few
blocks from the scene of their discomfiture.

"It was too dark for him to recognize a soul of us," returned Clinton;
"if it hadn't been for the lamp gleam coming suddenly through that
window, she would not have known him."

"I hope he didn't know me," said Arthur, rubbing his forehead, which had
struck the pavement as he fell, and feeling considerably sobered by his
fall, and the recent flight. "I don't want this scrape to go back to
Guly."

"Who's that? your young milk-and-water brother! Pshaw! what does he know
about the fun of such things? If you want to enjoy yourself, I advise
you to keep your sprees a secret from him; he has no soul to appreciate
such affairs."

"You are more than half right there."

"He's the kind of character I can't bear to be near," said Quirk,
emphatically.

"You couldn't pay him a higher compliment than to say that," returned
Arthur, warmly.

"Well, well, don't get into a miff about a trifle now. Clint, where
shall we go to?"

"I shall go home, I reckon; my head aches," said Arthur.

"No, you won't go home either," replied Clinton, pulling him along with
him, good-naturedly. "Let's make a night of it, now we have begun. What
do you say for the Globe ball-room? There's a high affair there
to-night, and

'We'll dance all night till broad daylight,
And go home with the gals in the morning.'"

"Agreed," said Quirk; "come along, Pratt. Your foot's in, and it'll be
dirty, whether you pull it out first or last; you may as well have the
good of it."

With a heart responding to this idea, Arthur suffered his companions
each to take an arm, and went on with them to the Globe ball-room. The
haggard ghost, the pale figure of warning and remorse, was gone for ever
from Arthur's heart.

Wilkins, the moment he discovered who it was