e.

"Don't you feel it yourself, sir?" asked Billy. "Do you ever pen a reply
to a knotty state-paper as nately as when you've the heartburn?--are
you ever as epigrammatic as when you're driven to a listen slipper?--and
when do you give a minister a jobation as purtily as when you are
laborin' under a slight indigestion? Not that it would sarve a man to be
permanently in gout or the colic; but for a spurt like a cavalry charge,
there's nothing like eatin' something that disagrees with you."

"An ingenious notion," said the diplomatist, smiling.

"And now I 'll take my lave," said Billy, rising. "I'm going out
to gather some mountain-colchicum and sorrel, to make a diaphoretic
infusion; and I've to give Master Charles his Greek lesson; and blister
the colt,--he's thrown out a bone spavin; and, after that, Handy Care's
daughter has the shakin' ague, and the smith at the forge is to be
bled,--all before two o 'dock, when 'the lord' sends for me. But the
rest of the day, and the night too, I'm your honor's obaydient."

And with a low bow, repeated in a more reverential man-ner at the door,
Billy took his leave and retired.

CHAPTER X. A DISCLOSURE

"Have you seen Upton?" asked Glencore eagerly of Harcourt as he entered
his bedroom.

"Yes; he vouchsafed me an audience during his toilet, just as the old
kings of France were accustomed to honor a favorite with one."

"And is he full of miseries at the dreary place, the rough fare and
deplorable resources of this wild spot?"

"Quite the reverse; he is charmed with everything and everybody. The
view from his window is glorious; the air has already invigorated him.
For years he has not breakfasted with the same appetite; and he finds
that of all the places he has ever chanced upon, this is the one
veritable exact spot which suits him."

"This is very kind on his part," said Glencore, with a faint smile.
"Will the humor last, Harcourt? That is the question."

"I trust it will,--at least it may well endure for the short period
he means to stay; although already he has extended that, and intends
remaining till next week."

"Better still," said Glencore, with more animation of voice and manner.
"I was already growing nervous about the brief space in which I was to
crowd in all that I want to say to him; but if he will consent to wait a
day or two, I hope I shall be equal to it."

"In his present mood there is no impatience to be off; on the contrary,
he has been in