Louis
had given my father on a long string from Paddy's neck and sternly bid
him keep his cloak tight about him. We were ready.

"Now, Paddy," said I, "do you bow in this manner." I bowed as a
gentleman should. But I will not say how I strove with him. I could do
little in that brief space. If he remained motionless and kept his
tongue still he was somewhat near his part, but the moment he moved he
was astonishing. I depended on keeping him under my eye, and I told
him to watch me like a cat. "Don't go thinking how grand you are, that
way," I cried to him angrily. "If you make a blunder of it, the
gentlemen will cudgel you, mark you that. Do you as I direct you. And
the string, curse you. Mind your cloak!" The villain had bethought him
of his flowered waistcoat, and with a comic air flung back his coat to
display it. "Take your fingers out of your mouth. Stop scratching your
shin with your foot. Leave your hair alone. 'Tis as good and as bad as
you can make it. Come along now, and hold your tongue like a graven
image if you would not be having me stop the duel to lather you."

We marched in good order out of the inn. We saw our two gentlemen
awaiting us, wrapped in their cloaks, for the dawn was cold. They
bowed politely, and as I returned their salute I said in a low, quick
aside to Paddy:

"Now, for the love of God, bow for your life!"

My intense manner must have frightened the poor thing, for he ducked
as swiftly as if he had been at a fair in Ireland and somebody had
hove a cobble at his head.

"Come up!" I whispered, choking with rage. "Come up! You'll be
breaking your nose on the road."

He straightened himself, looking somewhat bewildered, and said:

"What was it? Was I too slow? Did I do it well?"

"Oh, fine," said I. "Fine. You do it as well as that once more, and
you will probably break your own neck, and 'tis not me will be buying
masses for your soul, you thief. Now don't drop as if a gamekeeper had
shot at you. There is no hurry in life. Be quiet and easy."

"I mistrusted I was going too fast," said he; "but for the life of me
I couldn't pull up. If I had been the Dublin mail, and the road thick
as fleas with highwaymen, I should have gone through them grand."

My Lord Strepp and Colonel Royale had not betrayed the slightest
surprise at the appearance of my extraordinary companion. Their
smooth, regular faces remained absolutely imperturbable. This I took
to be very considerate of them, but I g