last glass
of wine was drunk the day before. The gentlemen in the public room of
the Massereene Arms were not, most of them, drunk when Maurice St. Clair
came among them, but they were gay. Their hearts, to use a Scripture
phrase, were made glad with wine. They were in the mood in which men
crack jokes and laugh loud at jokes which would not pass muster before
dinner. They were ready to sing out of time and tune or to applaud
the songs of others without criticising them. But they were, with the
exception of one or two, men of feeble capacity, sober enough to be
conscious of the fact that they were liable to make fools of themselves,
and to resent the intrusion of a cool-headed stranger.

They stared angrily at Maurice St. Clair. They said in audible tones
things which showed him plainly that his presence was most unwelcome,
but Maurice remained unabashed. He crossed the room and sat down on the
window seat--the same seat from which Neal had watched the piper and the
dancers a week or two before. He beckoned to the harassed and wearied
girl who waited on the party.

"Get me," he said, "something to eat--anything. I do not mind what it
is, and bring a cup of milk. Then send my groom to me."

"The gentleman," said a young squire, who had certainly crossed the
undefined line which separates sobriety from drunkenness, "is going to
drink milk. Now, what I want to know is this--has any gentleman a right
to drink milk on an evening like this, after the glorious victory which
we have won?"

"It's damned little you had to do with winning it," said an officer who
sat beside him. "You can drink, but----"

"The man that says I can't drink lies," said the other. "No offence
to you, Captain; no offence meant or taken. I give you a toast, and
I propose that the milky gentleman in the window--the milk-and-water
gentleman--drinks it along with us. Here's success to the loyalists
and a long rope and short shrift to the rebelly croppies. Now, Mr.
Milk-and-Water----"

Maurice rose to his feet.

"I understand, gentlemen, that this is a public room in which any
traveller may be supplied with what he calls for. I have no wish to push
myself into your company. I trust that you will allow me to enjoy my own
unmolested."

The intoxicated proposer of the toast laid his hand on his sword,
blustered out an oath or two, and was pulled down again into his
seat. There was good feeling enough left among the better class of
his companions to u