-- had thrown
himself on the sofa. He wished to go to bed after a long day's travel;
but his key was also, for security, in the valet's pocket, who had been
searched for every where without success. B-- begged me not to remain
out of politeness; but I did remain not out of politeness, but of
"_malice_," as the French term it. "I had too much pleasure in their
company to think of leaving them;" and we continued to sip
brandy-and-water. At last, three o'clock came, B-- was out of all
patience, W-- snoring on the sofa, and I, quite delighted. The sun
should have poured his beams upon us before I would have gone away. The
bell was rung, but in vain, for the waiters would wait no longer. It
was proposed to send for a menuisier to pick the lock; but how was one
to be found at three o'clock in the morning? At last the valet, drunk
and reeling in his morning jacket, entered the room. "The keys the
keys!" demanded B-- in wrath.

"The key!" roared W--, who had woke up.

"I have them," replied the valet, with a most knowing leer, facetiously
smiling. "I have them--all safe--all right, gentlemen. Here they are,"
continued the man, pulling them out, and presenting them as if he had
done a very clever thing. "Here they are, you see."

The man was too tipsy to be expostulated with, and the gentlemen took
their keys in silence. "And now," said I, "gentlemen, I wish you a very
good night. You have fully established the extreme _comfort_ of a
travelling valet, and the impossibility of doing without one." It was a
glorious victory, although to get _out_ of the house I had to open a
window and leap from it, and to get _into_ my own house at that hour was
even more difficult.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

I have been reading Jesse's "Gleanings." Is he quite correct? I have
my doubts. In one point I certainly do not agree with him, in his
favourite opinion of cats. I do, however, know an instance of misplaced
affection in a cat, which, although it does not add to the moral
character of the race, is extremely curious for more reasons than one,
and as it happened in my own family, I can vouch for its authenticity.
A little black spaniel had five puppies, which were considered too many
for her to bring up. As, however, the breed was much in request, her
mistress was unwilling that any of them should be destroyed, and she
asked the cook whether she thought it would be possible to bring a
portion of them up by hand before