aw Indian would save you."

"I should be proud of even defeat at such hands!" exclaimed Paul,
rapturously.

"You 'd have little to be proud of when she 'd have done with you,"
cried Grog, all his good-humor restored by the mere thought of his
daughter.

"Have you spoken to his Lordship about what I mentioned?" said Paul,
half diffidently.

"No," said Grog; "on reflection, I thought it better not. I 'm sure,
besides, that there's no Church preferment in his gift; and then,
Classon, he knows you, as who does not?"

"'Quae regio terrae non plena est?' Ay, Grog, you and I have arrived at
what the world calls Fame."

"Speak for yourself, sir; I acknowledge no partnership in the case. When
I have written letters, they have not been begging ones; and when I have
stretched out my hand, there was no pistol in the palm of it!"

"Very true, Kit; _I_ never had a soul above petty larceny, and _you_ had
a spirit that aspired to transportation for life."

Davis bounded on his chair, and glowered with a fearful stare at the
speaker, who meanwhile drained the decanter into his glass with an
unmoved serenity.

"Don't be angry, my ancient friend," said he, blandly. "The cares
of friendship, like the skill of a surgeon, must often pain to be
serviceable. Happy let us call ourselves when no ruder hand wields the
probe or the bistoury!"

"Make an end of canting, I want to speak to you about matters of moment.
You will set out to-day, I hope."

"Immediately after the marriage."

"What road do you take?"

"Strasburg, Paris, Marseilles, whence direct to Constantinople by the
first steamer."

"After that?"

"Across the Black Sea to Balaklava."

"But when do you reach the Crimea?"

"Balaklava is _in_ the Crimea."

Davis flushed scarlet. The reflection on his geography wounded him, and
he winced under it.

"Are you quite clear that you understand my instructions?" said he,
testily.

"I wish I was as sure of a deanery," said Paul, smacking his lips over
the last glass.

"You can scarcely wish over-well to the Church, when you desire to be
one of its dignitaries," said Davis, with a sarcastic grin.

"Why so, my worthy friend? There is a wise Scotch adage says, 'It taks
a' kind of folk to mak a warld;' and so, various orders of men, with
gifts widely differing, if not discrepant, are advantageously assembled
into what we call corporations."

"Nonsense,--bosh!" said Grog, impatiently. "If you have no better
command of