le thought! My heart assures me of a most cordial welcome.'

'And I should only stay a day or two at farthest.'

'Which would suit me to perfection. I must be back here by Tuesday if I had
to walk the distance.'

'Not at all improbable, so far as I know of your resources.'

'What a churlish dog it is! Now had you, Master Dick, proposed to me that
we should go down and pass a week at a certain small thatched cottage
on the banks of the Ban, where a Presbyterian minister with eight olive
branches vegetates, discussing tough mutton and tougher theology on
Sundays, and getting through the rest of the week with the parables and
potatoes, I'd have said, Done!'

'It was the inopportune time I was thinking of. Who knows what confusion
this event may not have thrown them into? If you like to risk the
discomfort, I make no objection.'

'To so heartily expressed an invitation there can be but one answer, I
yield.'

'Now look here, Joe, I'd better be frank with you: don't try it on at
Kilgobbin as you do with me.'

'You are afraid of my insinuating manners, are you?'

'I am afraid of your confounded impudence, and of that notion you cannot
get rid of, that your cool familiarity is a fashionable tone.'

'How men mistake themselves. I pledge you my word, if I was asked what was
the great blemish in my manner, I'd have said it was bashfulness.'

'Well, then, it is not!'

'Are you sure, Dick, are you quite sure?'

'I am quite sure, and unfortunately for you, you'll find that the majority
agree with me.'

'"A wise man should guard himself against the defects that he might have,
without knowing it." That is a Persian proverb, which you will find in
_Hafiz_. I believe you never read _Hafiz_!'

'No, nor you either.'

'That's true; but I can make my own _Hafiz_, and just as good as the real
article. By the way, are you aware that the water-carriers at Tehran sing
_Lalla Rookh_, and believe it a national poem?'

'I don't know, and I don't care.'

'I'll bring down an _Anacreon_ with me, and see if the Greek cousin can
spell her way through an ode.'

'And I distinctly declare you shall do no such thing.'

'Oh dear, oh dear, what an unamiable trait is envy! By the way, was that
your frock-coat I wore yesterday at the races?'

'I think you know it was; at least you remembered it when you tore the
sleeve.'

'True, most true; that torn sleeve was the reason the rascal would only let
me have fifteen shillings on it.'