idow, with pounds of barley
sugar in her pockets;--and she already serving as a test-vessel or
mortar for awful combinations in druggery! Gilt widows are equal to
decrees of Fate to us young ones. Upon my word, the cleric who unites,
and the Law that sanctions, they're the criminals. Victor Radnor is the
noblest of fellows, the very best friend a man can have. I will tell
you: he saved me, after I left the army, from living on the produce of
my pen--which means, if there is to be any produce, the prostrating of
yourself to the level of the round middle of the public: saved me from
that! Yes, Mr. Carling, I have trotted our thoroughfares a poor Polly of
the pen; and it is owing to Victor Radnor that I can order my thoughts
as an individual man again before I blacken paper. Owing to him, I have
a tenderness for mercenaries; having been one of them and knowing how
little we can help it. He is an Olympian--who thinks of them below.
The lady also is an admirable woman at all points. The pair are a mated
couple, such as you won't find in ten households over Christendom. Are
you aware of the story?'

Carling replied: 'A story under shadow of the Law, has generally two
very distinct versions.'

'Hear mine.--And, by Jove! a runaway cab. No, all right. But a crazy cab
it is, and fit to do mischief in narrow Drury. Except that it's sheer
riff-raff here to knock over.'

'Hulloa?--come!' quoth the wary lawyer.

'There's the heart I wanted to rouse to hear me! One may be sure that
the man for old Burgundy has it big and sound, in spite of his legal
practices; a dear good spherical fellow! Some day, we'll hope, you will
be sitting with us over a magnum of Victor Radnor's Romance Conti aged
thirty-one: a wine, you'll say at the second glass, High Priest for the
celebration of the uncommon nuptials between the body and the soul of
man.'

'You hit me rightly,'said Carting, tickled and touched; sensually
excited by the bouquet of Victor Radnor's hospitality and companionship,
which added flavour to Fenellan's compliments. These came home to him
through his desire to be the 'good spherical fellow'; for he, like
modern diplomatists in the track of their eminent Berlinese New Type of
the time, put on frankness as an armour over wariness, holding craft
in reserve: his aim was at the refreshment of honest fellowship: by
no means to discover that the coupling of his native bias with his
professional duty was unprofitable nowadays. Warines