hat on no other condition would I accompany you to
England, except that of being held clear of every act unbefitting a
gentleman or a soldier."

"Young sir," replied Dalton, "when you were indeed young, and long
before you took your degree in morality at the rambling court of the
second Charles, did I ever counsel you to do aught that your--that, in
short, you might not do with perfect honour? I know too well what it is
to sacrifice honour to interest ever to wish you to make the trial. As
for me, I am low enough in character----"

"My kind preserver! my brave friend!" interrupted Walter, touched at his
change of manner. "Forgive such unworthy, such unmerited suspicion. This
is not the first time I have had to learn your kindly care for me. But
for you----"

"Well, there, there boy--I love to call you boy still; I can bear my own
shame, but I could never bear yours."

Dalton paused, apparently with a view to change the subject: the
Cavalier observed--

"You quarrel with our young king's morality?"

"I'faith, I do!--though you will say it's ill coming from me to fault
any man's conduct; but I hate your little vices as much as your little
virtues: sickly, puny goods and evils, that are too weak for sun to
ripen, too low for blast to break, but which endure, the same withered,
sapless things, to the death-day--Augh! a bold villain, or a real
downright good man, for my money. How the devil can Charles Stuart do
any thing great, or think of any thing great, with his mistresses and
his dogs, his gaming and---- Why, it is hardly a year since I took off
from Dover that poor Lucy Barton and her brat, after the poor thing
suffering imprisonment in the Tower for his sake!"

"The child's a noble child," said Walter; "but the mother's a sad
reprobate, swears and drinks like a trooper."

"My mother is a woman," exclaimed little Robin, with great gravity,
poising a mutton-bone between his fingers, to arrive at which Crisp was
making extraordinary efforts,--"and I can't deny that I've a sort of
love, though it be a love without hope, for a very pretty girl, a woman
also: now this being the case, I'm not fond of hearing women reflected
on; for when they're young, they're the delight of our eyes; and when
they're old, they're useful, though a trifle crabbed, but still useful;
and a house without a woman would be like--like----"

"Robin at fault!" said Dalton: "you've given me many a comparison, and
now I'll lend you one--a bel