ly effect on the
sportsman was to produce a beaming smile of Anglo-Saxon good-will.

That night Lawrence Armstrong slept little. Next morning he found that
Pedro had to delay a day in order to have some further intercourse with
Colonel Marchbanks. Having nothing particular to do, and being still
very unhappy--though his temper had quite recovered--he resolved to take
a stroll alone. Just as he left the inn, a tall, powerfully-built,
soldierly man entered, and bestowed on him a quick, stern glance in
passing. He seemed to be between fifty and sixty, straight as a poplar,
and without any sign of abated strength, though his moustache and
whiskers were nearly white.

Lawrence would have at once recognised a countryman in this old officer,
even if the waiter had not addressed him by name as he presented him
with a note.

At any other time the sociable instincts of our hero would have led him
to seek the acquaintance both of the Colonel and the awful sportsman;
but he felt misanthropical just then, and passed on in silence.

Before he had been gone five minutes, Quashy came running after him.

"You no want _me_, massa?"

"No, Quash, I don't."

"P'r'aps," suggested the faithful man, with an excess of modesty and
some hesitation,--"P'r'aps you'd like me to go wid you for--for--
company?"

"You're very kind, Quash, and I should like to have you very much
indeed; but at present I'm very much out of sorts, and--"

"O massa!" interrupted the negro, assuming the sympathetic gaze
instantly, and speaking with intense feeling, "it's not in de stummik,
am it?" He placed his hand gently on the region referred to.

"No, Quash," Lawrence replied, with a laugh, "it is not the body at all
that affects me; it is the mind."

"Oh! is dat all?" said the negro, quite relieved. "Den you not need to
boder you'self. Nobody ebber troubled long wid dat complaint. Do you
know, massa, dat de bery best t'ing for dat is a little cheerful s'iety.
I t'ink you'll be de better ob me."

He said this with such self-satisfied gravity, and withal seemed to have
made up his mind so thoroughly to accompany his young master, that
Lawrence gave in, and they had not gone far when he began really to feel
the benefit of Quashy's light talk. We do not mean to inflict it all on
the reader, but a few sentences may, perhaps, be advantageous to the
development of our tale.

"Splendid place dis, massa," observed the negro, after they had walked
and c