your lordship at present," answered
Jekyl; "and I wish to Heaven there may be no one looking over the hand."

"How do you mean by that?"

"Why, I was beset, on returning through the wood, by an old bore, a
Nabob, as they call him, and Touchwood by name."

"I have seen such a quiz about," said Lord Etherington--"What of him?"

"Nothing," answered Jekyl, "except that he seemed to know much more of
your affairs than you would wish or are aware of. He smoked the truth of
the rencontre betwixt Tyrrel and you, and what is worse--I must needs
confess the truth--he contrived to wring out of me a sort of
confirmation of his suspicions."

"'Slife! wert thou mad?" said Lord Etherington, turning pale; "His is
the very tongue to send the story through the whole country--Hal, you
have undone me."

"I hope not," said Jekyl; "I trust in Heaven I have not!--His knowledge
is quite general--only that there was some scuffle between you--Do not
look so dismayed about it, or I will e'en go back and cut his throat, to
secure his secrecy."

"Cursed indiscretion!" answered the Earl--"how could you let him fix on
you at all?"

"I cannot tell," said Jekyl--"he has powers of boring beyond ten of the
dullest of all possible doctors--stuck like a limpet to a rock--a
perfect double of the Old Man of the Sea, who I take to have been the
greatest bore on record."

"Could you not have turned him on his back like a turtle, and left him
there?" said Lord Etherington.

"And had an ounce of lead in my body for my pains? No--no--we have
already had footpad work enough--I promise you the old buck was armed,
as if he meant to bing folks on the low toby."[II-8]

"Well--well--But Martigny, or Tyrrel, as you call him--what says he?"

"Why, Tyrrel, or Martigny, as your lordship calls him," answered Jekyl,
"will by no means listen to your lordship's proposition. He will not
consent that Miss Mowbray's happiness shall be placed in your lordship's
keeping; nay, it did not meet his approbation a bit the more, when I
hinted at the acknowledgment of the marriage, or the repetition of the
ceremony, attended by an immediate separation, which I thought I might
venture to propose."

"And on what grounds does he refuse so reasonable an accommodation?"
said Lord Etherington--"Does he still seek to marry the girl himself?"

"I believe he thinks the circumstances of the case render that
impossible," replied his confidant.

"What? then he would play the dog i