for all I have been writing to you. Egad! I
believe I am getting an old woman— sometimes,
at least. But the foreign doctor, Delahorney—
egad! I never can get his name*—beats
everything. We had a doctor in our regiment who,
they said, could cure a broken walking-stick;
but, my dear fellow, Delahorney beats every
one of them out and out.

* About the time the captain was at Nice there
was a Doctor Delaunay enjoying much English
practice.

"Talking of out and out, why can't you come
out? The fact is, I'm not equal to the work,
or, my dear boy, I'm not the fellow for it. I'm
ashamed really to be seen at these fine parties,
an old broken-down fogie like me, stumping in
on my old shank by the side of a fine fresh
young woman. My dear boy, the husband is
the proper man; a fine handsome fellow like
yourself should be with his wife, and leave the
ledgers. I wish to God you heard Doctor
Delahorney on that; as good as any parson.
He says he has known numbers of fine young
fellows cut short in that way, and he says for a
man who has overworked himself and wants to
get colour back into his cheeks there is no
place at all to touch Nice. And I must say he
did it as nicely as my lord duke, and bade me
give you his compliments. And not health, my
dear boy, but it's the regular thing; every girl
here has her husband with her, and not a
shambling old boy like Tom, who's but a poor
makeshift, after all.† And to tell you the plain
honest truth, my dear fellow, the place is full of
young mounseers, gentlemanly fellows enough,
but as wild scamps as you ever heard of in the
course of your life. Last week, a fellow called
the Marquis of Sashey something, went off with
a fine tip-top woman, a noble grenadier of a
creature, and, egad! when the husband said
something to him, he had him out in two hours,
and shot him as dead as a rabbit. And, my
dear boy, the droll thing is, all the women are
dancing with him.

† The reader will see that our captain is struggling
by all sorts of circuitous routes to reach some point,
which he is too delicate to make for directly.

"Our travelling gentleman is very friendly
indeed, but I think comes a little too often to
the house, and, egad! don't take a hint, you
know. And then our little woman seems to be
amused with his company. I belong to an old
generation, you know, my dear Tillotson, when
the fogies had their day, so I am not up to
everything that goes on; so I suppose everything
is right. But my dear boy, the way to make
everything nice, and smooth, and tidy, and, as
Doctor Delahorney says, would put you on your
two legs again, is to come out yourself at once."

Mr. Tillotson saw behind all this directly.
"The old mistake," he said to himself, bitterly.
"Poor captain, he lets out the truth at once.
She is now in her element. This freedom was
what she was pining for."

The organisation of the two offices took up
a great deal of time, but Mr. Tillotson went off
hurriedly to his board at once.

"You have been working very hard, Tillotson,"
said Mr. Bowater, " over it. I hope not
over-doing it. We must take care here," and
he tapped his forehead. " To be sure you must
go. It is a little inconvenient, no doubt; but
we'll work for you. Just wind up within the
next two or three days, so as to leave all clear."
And Mr. Tillotson set to work eagerly to get all
clear, and fixed the third day from thence as the
day of his departure. " Poor little soul," he said.
"It seems a sad mistake, but she must not
suffer for my folly. It is a duty for me." He
sat up late that night, and yet later the next
night. With great labour he had nearly got
through his task; and then the secretary came
in with yet more, and asked, " Surely, now, did
a day make so much difference ? And, after all,
couldn't he put on the steam when he had once
started?"

At last a free man, and with a little light
luggage hastily put together, he set off by night,
and by a dark night; with that "putting on the
steam" alluded to by Mr. Smiles, he need only
be two nights on the road. Down they would
swoop to Dover, as rapidly swoop across to
Calais, and then "tear" wildly through the
French country, and as the night gathered in
its dark drapery slowly, the pleasant objects
of a new land, the fields, the costumes, the
men and women, would gradually open on the
traveller. For him it was a gloomy night, and
a cold one in thought as in temperature. He
took no account of the time, and it was with a
little surprise that he found that they had
stopped in the large blazing station at Dover,
and heard that he was to descend here and go
on board. He got down mechanically.

There was a great crowd and bustle. It was
now found to be a wild raging night, and
passengers as they stood at the door and looked
out down towards the port, shrank back a little;
the wind was whistling, and seemed to bring
with it a flavour of the sea. Some thought it
better not to " go on," and turned to the great
hotel close by. Mr. Tillotson, careless about
such a thing, prepared to go down straight to
the port.

But another packet had just come in, bringing
with it a miserable foretaste of what was in store
for those who were going on the sea now.
Here was the miserable, battered, cruelly-used
herd of passengers staggering up, without
strength or life, wet and shrivelled, but still
thankful to be on land once more. Some with
faces all " washed out," and ghastly with sea-
sufferings, came blindly and wildly into the
blazing station, and Mr. Tillotson felt a little
pity for such miserable beings. And suddenly,
as he was waiting to let the stream pass him by
and let him out, a figure in a cloak which had
a very high stiff collar, with a thin white face
peering out, came limping past him, and said
half to himself, half aloud, " I wonder where
this takes us to, my dear?" For there was a
lady behind him, and only one lady, and in that