end what you like,
but'--and he spoke in a determined tone--'you'll pay _my_ bill.'

'_Your_ bill!' said I, waxing wroth. 'What have I had from you. How am I
_your_ debtor? I should like to hear.'

'And you shall,' said he, drawing forth a long document from a pocket in
his cassock. 'Here it is.'

He handed me the paper, of which the following is a transcript:--

NOCES DE MI LORD O'LEARY ET MADEMOISELLE MI LADY DE MUDDLETON.

FRANCS.

Two conversations--preliminary, admonitory, and consolatory 10 0

Advice to the young couple, with moral maxims interspersed 3 0

Soiree, and society at wine 5 0

Guide to the chateau, with details, artistic and antiquarian 12 0

Eight children with flowers, at half a franc each 4 0

Fees at the chateau 2 0

Chorus of virgins, at one franc per virgin 10 0

Roses for virgins 2 10

M. le Maire et Madame 'en grande tenue' 1 0

Book of Registry, setting forth the date of the marriage-----

'The devil take it!' said I; 'it was no marriage at all.' 'Yes, but it
was, though,' said he. 'It's your own fault if you can't take care of
your wife.'

The noise of his reply brought the host and hostess to the scene of
action; and though I resisted manfully for a time, there was no use in
prolonging a hopeless contest, and, with a melancholy sigh, I disbursed
my wedding expenses, and with a hearty malediction on Bouvigne--its
chateau, its inn, its _pere_, its _maire_, and its virgins--I took the
road towards Namur, and never lifted my head till I had left the place
miles behind me.

CHAPTER XVI. A MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE

It was growing late on a fine evening in autumn, as I, a solitary
pedestrian, drew near the little town of Spa. From the time of my
leaving Chaude Fontaine, I lingered along the road, enjoying to the
utmost the beautiful valley of the Vesdre, and sometimes half hesitating
whether I would not loiter away some days in one of the little villages
I passed, and see if the trout, whose circling eddies marked the stream,
might not rise as favourably to my fly as to the vagrant insect that now
flitted across the water. In good sooth I wished for rest, and I wished
for