art, which say, 'Be happy!'"

"Keep the sermon for the cripples at the water-cure," said Davis,
savagely. "When are you to be there?"

"By the end of the month. I mentioned the time myself. It would be as
soon, I thought, as I could manage to have my divinity library out from
England."

The sly drollery of his eye, as he spoke, almost extorted a half-smile
from Davis.

"Let me see," muttered Grog, as he arose and lighted his cigar, "we are,
to-day, the 21st, I believe. No, you can't be there so early. I shall
need you somewhere about the first week in October; it might chance to
be earlier. You mustn't remain here, however, in the interval. You'll
have to find some place in the neighborhood, about fifteen or twenty
miles off."

"There's Hoechst, on the Lahn, a pleasant spot, eighteen miles from
this."

"Hoechst be it; but, mark me, no more of last night's doings."

"I pledge my word," said Paul, solemnly. "Need I say, it is as good as
my bond?"

"About the same, I suspect; but I 'll give you _mine_ too," said Davis,
with a fierce energy. "If by any low dissipation or indiscretion of
yours you thwart the plans I am engaged in, I 'll leave you to starve
out the rest of your life here."

"'So swear we all as liegemen true, So swear to live and die!'" cried
out Paul, with a most theatrical air in voice and gesture.

"You know a little of everything, I fancy," said Davis, in a more
good-humored tone. "What do you know of law?"

"Of law?" said Paul, as he helped himself to a dish of smoking
cutlets,--"if it be the law of debtor and creditor, false arrest,
forcible possession, battery, or fraudulent bankruptcy, I am
indifferently well skilled. Nor am I ignorant in divorce cases, separate
maintenance, and right of guardianship. Equity, I should say, is my weak
point."

"I believe you," said Davis, with a grin, for he but imperfectly
understood the speech. "But it is of another kind of law I 'm speaking.
What do you know about disputed title to a peerage? Have you any
experience in such cases?"

"Yes; I have ransacked registries, rummaged out gravestones in my time.
I very nearly burned my fingers, too, with a baptismal certificate that
turned out to be--what shall I call it?--unauthentic!"

"You forged it!" said Grog, gruffly.

"They disputed its correctness, and, possibly, with some grounds for
their opinion. Indeed," added he, carelessly, "it was the first thing of
the kind I had ever done, and it was slo