-player of his
day. He had been swimming a long stretch far out to sea, and air and
exercise together had effaced many of those signs of dissipation which
his face usually wore, while in his voice there was a frank boldness
that only came back to him at some rare intervals.

"I can fancy, Grace," cried he, loud enough to be heard across the hall,
"that Millar is quite proud of his condescension. The great rector of
the parish, man of fortune besides, stooping to invite the dispensary
doctor! Twelve hundred per annum associating with eighty! To be sure he
says, 'You will only meet two friends and neighbors of mine,' as though
to intimate, 'I am doing this on the sly; I don't mean to make you a
guest on field-days.'"

She muttered something, speedily interrupted by a cough; and he, not
caring to catch her words, went on:--

"It is a politeness that cuts both ways, and makes _me_ as uncomfortable
as him. This waistcoat has a beggarly account of empty button-holes;
and as for my coat, nothing but a dim candle-light would screen its
deficiencies. I was a fool to accept!" cried he, impatiently.

"Don't go, Tom! don't go!" screamed the parrot, addressing him by a
familiar sobriquet.

"And why not, doctor?" said Layton, laughing at the apropos.

"Don't go! don't go!" repeated the bird.

"Give me your reasons, old boy, and not impossible is it I 'll agree
with you. What do you say, Grace?" added he, advancing to the door of
his room the better to catch her words.

"It is to them the honor is _done_, not to you," said she, faintly, and
as though the speech cost her heavily.

"Very hard to persuade the rector of that,--very hard to convince the
man of silver side-dishes and cut decanters that he is not the patron
of him who dines off Delf and drinks out of pewter. Is this cravat too
ragged, Grace? I think I 'd better wear my black one."

"Yes, the black one," said she, coughing painfully.

"After all, it is no grand occasion,--a little party of four."

"What a swell! what a swell!" shrieked the parrot.

"Ain't I? By Jove," laughed Layton, "the doctor is marvellous in his
remarks to-day."

"There, I have done my best with such scanty 'properties,'" said he, as
he turned away from the glass. "The greatest peril to a shabby man is
the self-imposed obligation to show he is better than he looks. It is an
almost invariable blunder."

She muttered something inaudibly, and, as usual, he went on with his own
thoughts.