and over old Jubilee's near hind pastern, and in a manner almost more
than professional. Sam advanced, in some wonder. Mrs. Mortimer reached
down a shapely hand for the pan-handle, leaned as she did so, and
murmured--

"You will not lend money to Stanislas? He is apt, when the world goes
ill with him, to seek distraction, to behave unconventionally. It is
not a question of drowning his cares, for the least little drop acting
upon his artistic temperament--"

But at this moment her husband, having concluded his inspection of the
grey, called out to be given a leg-up, and Sam hurried back to oblige.

"Thank you. Time was, Smiles, when with hand laid lightly on the
crupper, I could have vaulted."

Overcome by these reminiscences, Mr. Mortimer let his chin sink, his
legs dangle, and rode forward a pace or two in the classical attitude of
the Last Survivor from Cabul; but anon looked up with set jaw and
resolution in his eye, took a grip with his knees, and challenged--

"Give a man a horse he can ride,
Give a man a boat he can sail,
And his something or other--I forget
the exact expression--
On sea nor shore shall fail!"

--"Fling wide the gate, Smiles!" He was now the Dashing Cavalier,
life-sized. "Take care of yourself, poppet!"

He gave his bridle-rein a shake (so to speak), turned, blew a kiss to
his spouse, dug heel and jogged forth chanting--

"_Tirra tirra_ by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot!"

CHAPTER VI.

MR. MORTIMER'S ADVENTURE.

"_Old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?_"--HAMLET

All the way along the canal bank Mr. Mortimer continued to carol.
Mercurial man! Like all actors he loved applause, but unlike the most
of them he was capable of supplying it when the public failed; and this
knack of being his own best audience had lifted him, before now, out of
quite a number of Sloughs of Despond and carried him forward singing.

He had left care behind him in Mr. Hucks's yard, and so much of noble
melancholy as he kept (for the sake of artistic effect) took a tincture
from the sunset bronzing the smoke-laden sky and gilding the unlovely
waterway. Like the sunset, Mr. Mortimer's mood was serene and golden.
His breast, expanding, heaved off all petty constricting worries,
"like Samson his green wythes": they fell from him as he rode, and as he
rode he chanted--

"The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves
And flamed upon the brazen greaves