together citywards; my
father was abroad.

"By Jove, what a stunner that girl is! I'm blest if I don't marry
her some day--you see if I don't!"

"That's just what _I_ mean to do," said I. And we had a good laugh
at the idea of two such desperadoes, as we thought ourselves,
talking like this about a little school-girl.

"We'll toss up," says Barty; and we did, and he won.

This, I remember, was before his quarrel with Lord Archibald. She
was then about fourteen, and her subtle and singular beauty was just
beginning to make itself felt.

I never knew till long after how deep had been the impression
produced by this glimpse of a mere child on a fast young man about
town--or I should not have been amused. For there were times when I
myself thought quite seriously of Leah Gibson, and what she might be
in the long future! She looked a year or two older than she really
was, being very tall and extremely sedate.

Also, both my father and mother had conceived such a liking for her
that they constantly talked of the possibility of our falling in
love with each other some day. Castles in Spain!

As for me, my admiration for the child was immense, and my respect
for her character unbounded; and I felt myself such a base unworthy
brute that I couldn't bear to think of myself in such a
connection--until I had cleansed myself heart and soul (which would
take time)! And as for showing by my manner to her that such an idea
had ever crossed my mind, the thought never entered my head.

She was just my dear sister's devoted friend; her petticoat hem was
still some inches from the ground, and her hair in a plait all down
her back....

Girlish innocence and purity incarnate--that is what she seemed; and
what she was. "La plus forte des forces est un coeur innocent," said
Victor Hugo--and if you translate this literally into English, it
comes to exactly the same, both in rhythm and sense.

* * * * *

When Barty sold out, he first thought he would like to go on the
stage, but it turned out that he was too tall to play anything but
serious footmen.

Then he thought he would be a singer. We used to go to the opera at
Drury Lane, where they gave in English a different Italian opera
every night;--and this was always followed by _Acis and Galatea_.

We got our seats in the stalls every evening for a couple of weeks,
through the kindness of Mr. Hamilton Braham, whom Barty knew, and
who played Polyphem