t, wherever he is,
there is Frank."

At this moment Salisbury rushed into the room, and throwing himself
in a sitting posture on the floor, with his back against the wall as
if completely exhausted, laughed on without uttering a word, till his
mirth became so infectious, that nearly all the room joined him.

"Well, Salisbury!" "Well, Salisbury!" "What is it?" "Tell us." "Have
done laughing, do, you wretch, you merry-andrew." "Do be sensible."

"Sensible!" groaned Salisbury, laying his head against a form;
"oh, hold me, somebody--I'm quite knocked up with laughing. It's
enough to make a fellow insensible for the rest of his life."

"Well, what is it, madcap?" said Reginald, jumping up from his seat,
and approaching him in a threatening attitude.

"Frank Digby!" said Salisbury, going off into another paroxysm
of laughter.

"Shake him into a little sense, Mortimer," said Jones.

"Come, Salisbury, what is it?" said several more, coming up to him.

Salisbury sat upright and wiped his eyes.

"It was the clearest case of stabbing a man with his own sword I ever
saw. I don't know whether I shall ever get it out for laughing, but
I'll try."

Louis looked up at Hamilton, rather anxious to get nearer to Salisbury,
but Hamilton wrote on as if determined neither to let Louis move, nor
to pay any attention himself, and Louis dared not ask.

"Well, you know, Mrs. Guppy sent for me. I went off in a beautiful humor,
as you may imagine, and found her ladyship in a great dressing-gown,
false front, and spectacles, surrounded by little boys in various stages
of Saturday night's going to bed, tucking up Casson very comfortably.

"'Oh, Mr. Salisbury,' said she, 'I'll speak with you presently,--will
you be so good as to wait there a minute?'

"Well, I thought she looked very odd, but she spoke just the same
as ever; and being very cross, I said, 'I am in a hurry; perhaps
when you've done you'll call on me in the study,' Whereupon her
ladyship comes straight out of the room, and says on the landing,
in Frank Digby's voice, 'Know me by this token, _I am mixing a
black draught by the light of a Latin candle_.'"

Salisbury burst out into a fresh fit of laughter, in which he was
joined by all present except Hamilton, who steadily pursued his work
with an unmoved countenance.

"Well, you may imagine," said Salisbury, when he had recovered himself,
"I wasn't in a hurry then. I came back and waited behind the door very
patiently. Y