many
devices to frighten me."

"Come, Paul, old fellow, pour yourself out a tumbler of that red wine,
while I cut you some of this ham; we 'll have plenty of time for talk
afterwards."

The stranger accepted the invitation, but without the slightest show of
eagerness or haste. Nay, he unfolded his napkin leisurely, and fastened
a corner in one buttonhole, as some old-fashioned epicures have a trick
of doing. He held his glass, too, up to the light, to enjoy the rich
color of the wine, and smacked his lips, as he tasted it, with the air
of a connoisseur.

"A Burgundy, Davis, eh?" asked he, sipping again.

"I believe so. In truth, I know little about these wines."

"Oh, yes, a 'Pomard,' and very good of its kind. Too loaded, of course,
for the time of year, except for such palates as England rears."

Davis had now covered his friend's plate with ham and capon, and, at
last, was pleased to see him begin his breakfast.

We are not about to impose upon our reader the burden of knowing more of
Mr. Classon than is requisite for the interests of our story; but while
he eats the first regular meal he has tasted for two months and more,
let us say a word or so about him. He was a clergyman, whose life
had been one continued history of mischances. Occasionally the sun of
prosperity would seem disposed to shine genially on his head; but for
the most part his lot was to walk with dark and lowering skies above
him.

[Illustration: 068]

If he held any preferment, it was to quarrel with his rector, his dean,
or his bishop; to be cited before commissions, tried by surrogates,
pronounced contumacious, suspended, and Heaven knows what else. He was
everlastingly in litigation with churchwardens and parish authorities,
discovering rights of which he was defrauded, and privileges of which he
was deprived. None like him to ferret out Acts of Edward or Henry, and
obsolete bequests of long-buried founders of this, that, or t'other, of
which the present guardians were little better than pickpockets. Adverse
decisions and penalties pressing on him, he grew libellous, he spoke,
wrote, and published all manner of defamatory things, accused every
one of peculation, fraud, and falsehood, and, as the spirit of attack
strengthened in him by exercise, menaced this man with prosecution, and
that with open exposure. Trials by law, and costs accumulated against
him, and he was only out of jail here, to enter it again there. From the
Courts "ab