d, and given the old gentleman a sharp thrust in the ribs.

The result was a violent start, and, as we have said, the young girl was
nearly precipitated from the seat upon which she stood.

A hoarse roar of laughter followed the clown-like feat; and then there
was a dead silence, for a fresh character appeared upon the scene, and
Barney was stooping down shaking his head to get rid of the dizziness
caused by a tremendous blow upon his bull-dog front.

The silence lasted but for a few moments, dining which Richard Trevor
caught one frightened glance from the lady in the barouche, and then
there was an ugly rush, and he and his friend were borne down the slope
of the hill.

The crowd seemed bubbling and seething with excitement for a few
minutes, during which the voices of Barney's friends could be heard
loudly exclaiming amongst them; and the gentleman named, in whose eyes
the tears had previously been gathering from the excess of his mirth,
was borne along with the others, still shaking his head, and feeling as
if the drops that collected had suddenly been turned to molten metal.

"Come away, Dick; for goodness' sake come away."

"My dear Frank, if you fill a vessel quite full, it begins to run over.
This ungodly vessel has been filled full of the gall of bitterness
to-day, and now it is running over."

"But, consider--what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to thrash this fellow within an inch of his life."

"But, Dick--the disgrace--you can't fight; you've punished him enough.
Think of what you're going to do."

"I am thinking," said Trevor, in a quiet, slow way--"thinking that he's
an ugly customer, and that his head looks precious hard."

"Keep back!"--"Make a ring!"--"Let him have it!"

"Now, Barney!" shouted the bystanders.

"Here, let me get at him!" shouted Barney.

"Call up the police!" said a mounted gentleman. "You can't fight that
fellow, sir."

"I'm going to try," said Trevor, grimly.

There was a buzz of voices, the crowd swayed here and there, and an
opening was made--Barney having struggled out of his upper garments, and
begun to square--when, to the surprise of all, he was suddenly
confronted by the stout-built West-country-man, who had leaped off the
box of the barouche, now on the other side of the hill; and before the
fellow had recovered from his surprise, he was sent staggering back into
the arms of his friends with a sensation as if a hive of bees, suddenly
let loose, were buzzi