esent myself at the house of my
entertainer.

"What name, sir?" said the obsequious servant, who, with noiseless
footsteps, had preceded me to the drawing-room door.

"What name shall I announce, sir?" said he a second time, as,
overwhelmed with confusion, I still stood speechless before him. Till
that very moment all thought on the subject had escaped me, and I
utterly forgot that I was actually without a designation in the world.
In all my shame and misery it had been a kind of consolation to me that
the name of my father had never been degraded, and that whatever might
have been my portion of worldly hardship, the once-honored appellation
had not shared in it. To assume it at this instant was too perilous.
Another day, one short night, would again reduce me to the same
ignominious station; and I should have thus, by a momentary rashness,
compromised the greatest secret of my heart. A third time did he ask the
same question; and as I stood uncertain and overwhelmed, a quiet foot
was heard ascending the stairs, a handsome, bright-looking man came
forward, the door was flung open at his approach, and the servant called
out, "Mr. Sheridan." I followed quickly, and the door closed behind us.
Hastily passing from Sheridan, O'Kelly came forward to me and shook
me cordially by the hand. Thanking me politely for my punctuality, he
welcomed me with all the semblance of old friendship.

"Colonel Conway and Payne you are already acquainted with," said he;
"but your long absence from England excuses you for not knowing my
other friends. This is Mr. Sheridan,"--we bowed,--"Mr. Malcomb, Captain
Seymour, Sir George Begley," and so on, with two or three more. He made
a rapid tour of the party, holding me by the arm as he went, till he
approached a chair where a young and very handsome man sat, laughing
immoderately at some story another at his side was whispering to him.

"What the devil am I to call you?" said O'Kelley to me in my ear. "Tell
me quickly."

Before I could stammer out my own sense of confusion, the person seated
in the arm-chair called out,--

"By Jove! O'Kelly must hear that. Tell him, Wynd-ham." But as suddenly
stopping, he said, "A friend of yours, O'Kelly?"

"Yes, your Royal Highness, a very old and valued friend, whom I have
not seen since our school-days. He has been vagabondizing over the whole
earth, fighting side by side with I know not how many of your Royal
Highness's enemies; and, having made his fo