the scene in the drawing-room?"

"God bless me!--No--I do not even recollect ever going into the
drawing-room! Pray tell me what I said or did: I hope nothing
improper."

"Why that depends very much whether a lady likes it or not: but in the
presence of so many people--"

"Merciful powers! Captain Carrington, pray let me know at once what
folly it was that I committed."

"Why, really, I am almost ashamed to enter into particulars: suffice to
say, that you used most unwarrantable freedom towards her."

"Is it possible?" cried the colonel.--"Now, Captain Carrington, are you
not joking?"

"Ask this gentleman; he was present."

The assertion of the captain was immediately corroborated, and the
colonel was quite aghast.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, I will run immediately--that abominable wine; I
must go and make a most ample apology. I am bound to do it, as a
gentleman, as an officer, and as a man of honour."

Captain Carrington and his confederate quitted the room, satisfied with
the success of their plot. The colonel rose, and soon afterwards made
his appearance. He swallowed a cup of coffee, and then proceeded on his
visit, to make the _amende honorable_.

When Mr Sullivan awoke from the lethargy produced from the stupefying
effects of the wine, he tried to recollect the circumstances of the
preceding evening; but he could trace no further than to the end of the
dinner, after which his senses had been overpowered. All that he could
call to memory was, that somebody had paid great attention to his wife,
and that what had passed afterwards was unknown. This occasioned him to
rise in a very jealous humour; and he had not been up more than an hour,
when the colonel sent up his card, requesting, as a particular favour
that the lady would admit him.

The card and messenger were taken by the servant to Mr Sullivan, whose
jealousy was again roused by the circumstance; and wishing to know if
the person who had now called was the same who had been so attentive to
his wife on the preceding evening, and the motives of the call, he
requested that the colonel might be shown in, without acquainting his
wife, whom he had not yet seen, with his arrival. The colonel, who
intended to have made an apology to the lady without the presence of a
third person, least of all of her husband, ascended the stairs,
adjusting his hair and cravat, and prepared with all the penitent
assurance and complimentary excuses of a too ardent lo