s; but he has since changed his mind, and sent a message to say he
'll be with us at eight".

"I should like to see your father's face, Kel, when he heard of your
entertaining the Reverend Father Dyke at dinner."

"Well, I suppose he would say it was carrying conciliation a little too
far; but as the adage says, _A la guerre_--"

At this juncture, another burst in amongst them, calling out,
"You 'd never guess who 's just arrived here, in strict incog., and
having bribed Mike, the waiter, to silence. Burgoyne!"

"Not Jack Burgoyne?"

"Jack himself. I had the portrait so correctly drawn by the waiter,
that there's no mistaking him; the long hair, green complexion, sheepish
look, all perfect. He came on a hack, a little cream-colored pad he got
at Dycer's, and fancies he's quite unknown."

"What _can_ he be up to now?"

"I think I have it," said his Lordship. "Courtenay has got two
three-year-olds down here at his uncle's, one of them under heavy
engagements for the spring meetings. Master Jack has taken a run down to
have a look at them."

"By Jove, Kel, you 're right! he's always wide awake, and that stupid
leaden-eyed look he has, has done him good service in the world."

"I say, old Oxley, shall we dash in and unearth him? Or shall we let him
fancy that we know nothing of his being here at all?"

"What does Hammond say?"

"I'd say, leave him to himself," replied a deep voice; "you can't go and
see him without asking him to dinner; and he 'll walk into us after, do
what we will."

"Not, surely, if we don't play," said Oxley.

"Would n't he, though? Why, he 'd screw a bet out of a bishop."

"I 'd do with him as Tomkinson did," said his Lordship; "he had him down
at his lodge in Scotland, and bet him fifty pounds that he could
n't pass a week without a wager. Jack booked the bet and won it, and
Tomkinson franked the company."

"What an artful villain my counterpart must be!" I said. I stared in the
glass to see if I could discover the sheepish-ness they laid such
stress on. I was pale, to be sure, and my hair a light brown, but so was
Shelley's; indeed, there was a wild, but soft expression in my eyes that
resembled his, and I could recognize many things in our natures
that seemed to correspond. It was the poetic dreaminess, the lofty
abstractedness from all the petty cares of every-day life which vulgar
people set down as simplicity; and thus,--

"The soaring thoughts that reached the stare,