Volume III Part 5 (1/2)

”Quite so, but there's a distinction bethat lovers ether, and what is proper in the presence of a mixed company”

”Yes, but I snatched four distinct favours froood reasons for taking her consent for granted?”

”You reason well, but you see she is out of humour with you She wants to speak to me to-morrow, and I have no doubt that you will be the subject of our conversation”

”Possibly, but still I should think she would not speak to you of the comic piece of business; it would be very silly of her”

”Why so? You don't know these pious woive thehted to confess to a third party; and these confessions with a seasoning of tears gives them in their own eyes quite a halo of saintliness”

”Well, let her tell you if she likes We shall see what comes of it”

”Possibly she lad to do ine what sort of satisfaction she could claim, unless she wants to punish me by the 'Lex talionis', which would be hardly practicable without a repetition of the original offence

If she had not liked the gaive me a push which would have sent me backwards”

”Yes, but that would have let us knohat you had been trying to do”

”Well, if it cohtest movement would have rendered the whole process null and void; but as it was she stood in the proper position as quiet as a la business altogether But did you notice that the Lary with you, too? She, perhaps, sahat you were doing, and felt hurt”

”Oh! she has got another cause of co her this evening”

”Really?”

”Yes, I will tell you all about it Yesterday evening, a young fellow in the Inland Revenue who had been seduced to sup with us by a hussy of Genoa, after losing forty louis, threw, the cards in the face of my landlady and called her a thief On the impulse of the ht have destroyed one of his eyes, but I fortunately hit him on the cheek He immediately ran for his sword, mine was ready, and if the Genoese had not thrown herself between us ht have been colass, he beca short of the return of all his ave it hi so they admitted, tacitly at all events, that it had been won by cheating This caused a sharp dispute between the Laone She said we should have kept the forty louis, and nothing would have happened except forman had insulted The Genoese added that if we had kept cool we should have had the plucking of him, but that God alone knehat he would do noith the mark of the burn on his face Tired of the talk of these infaan to ride the high horse, and went so far as to call ar

”If M le Noir had not come in just then, she would have had a bad time of it, as my stick was already in ue, buttowards the worthy ar, that she was a common prostitute, that I was not her cousin, nor in any way related to her, and that I should leave her that very day As soon as I had come to the end of this short and swift discourse, I went out and shut myself up in o and fetch my linen, and I hope to breakfast with you to-ht place, and he ise not to allow the foolish ie hi as aas his heart is sound, though his head o astray, the path of duty is still open to him I should say the sa in their case, and if they were not much more under the influence of the heart than the head

After a good dinner washed down by so in writing NextI did some business, and at noon went to see the distressed devotee, who niece We talked a few minutes about the weather, and she then told my sweetheart to leave us as she wanted to speak toand I waited for her to break the silence which all women of her position observe ”You will be surprised, sir, at what I a before you a complaint of an unheard-of character The case is really of the most delicate nature, and I am impelled to make a confidant of you by the impression you made on me when I first saw you I consider you to be a man of discretion, of honour, and above all a ion, and if I ah I have been insulted I don't lackmyself, and as you are his friend you will be sorry for hiuilty party, madam?”

”The same”

”And what is his crime?”

”He is a villain; he has insulted me in the ht hi so”

”I daresay not, but then you are a moral man”

”But as the nature of his offence? You may confide in my secrecy”

”I really couldn't tell you, it's quite out of the question; but I trust you will be able to guess it Yesterday, during the execution of the wretched Daly abused the position in which he found himself behind me”