of London, for the
double purpose of trying to convince Captain Welsh of the extravagance of
a piece of chivalry he was about to commit, and of seeing a lady with a
history, who had recently come under his guardianship. Temple thought I
should know her, but he made a mystery of it until the moment of our
introduction arrived, not being certain of her identity, and not wishing
to have me disappointed. It appeared that Captain Welsh questioned his
men closely after he had won his case, and he arrived at the conclusion
that two or three of them had been guilty of false swearing in his
interests. He did not dismiss them, for, as he said, it was twice a bad
thing to turn sinners loose: it was to shove them out of the direct road
of amendment, and it was a wrong to the population. He insisted, however,
on paying the legal costs and an indemnity for the collision at sea; and
Temple was in great distress about it, he having originally suggested the
suspicion of his men to Captain Welsh. 'I wanted to put him on his guard
against those rascals,' Temple said, 'and I suppose,' he sighed, 'I
wanted the old captain to think me enormously clever all round.' He shook
himself, and assumed a bearish aspect, significant of disgust and
recklessness. 'The captain 'll be ruined, Richie; and he's not young, you
know, to go on sailing his barque Priscilla for ever. If he pays, why, I
ought to pay, and then you ought to pay, for I shouldn't have shown off
before him alone, and then the wind that fetched you ought to pay. Toss
common sense overboard, there's no end to your fine-drawings; that's why
it's always safest to swear by the Judge.'

We rolled down to the masts among the chimneys on the top of an omnibus.
The driver was eloquent on cricket-matches. Now, cricket, he said, was
fine manly sport; it might kill a man, but it never meant mischief:
foreigners themselves had a bit of an idea that it was the best game in
the world, though it was a nice joke to see a foreigner playing at it!
None of them could stand to be bowled at. Hadn't stomachs for it; they'd
have to train for soldiers first. On one occasion he had seen a Frenchman
looking on at a match. 'Ball was hit a shooter twixt the slips: off
starts Frenchman, catches it, heaves it up, like his head, half-way to
wicket, and all the field set to bawling at him, and sending him, we knew
where. He tripped off: "You no comprong politeness in dis country." Ha!
ha!'

To prove the aforesaid Fr