the plan?'

'It is a very ingenious one,' said I.

'Ain't it?' said the landlord. 'The folks in this neighbourhood are
beginning to call me old fool; but if they don't call me something else,
when they sees me friends with the brewer, and money in my pocket, my
name is not Catchpole. Come, drink your ale, and go home to the young
gentlewoman.'

'I am going,' said I, rising from my seat, after finishing the remainder
of the ale.

'Do you think she'll have any objection?' said the landlord.

'To do what?' said I.

'Why, to fight cross.'

'Yes, I do,' said I.

'But you will do your best to persuade her?'

'No, I will not,' said I.

'Are you fool enough to wish to fight fair?'

'No,' said I, 'I am wise enough to wish not to fight at all.'

'And how's my brewer to be paid?' said the landlord.

'I really don't know,' said I.

'I'll change my religion,' said the landlord.

CHAPTER XCIII

Another visit--A la Margutte--Clever man--Napoleon's estimate--Another
statue.

One evening Belle and myself received another visit from the man in
black. After a little conversation of not much importance, I asked him
whether he would not take some refreshment, assuring him that I was now
in possession of some very excellent Hollands, which, with a glass, a jug
of water, and a lump of sugar, was heartily at his service; he accepted
my offer, and Belle going with a jug to the spring, from which she was in
the habit of procuring water for tea, speedily returned with it full of
the clear, delicious water of which I have already spoken. Having placed
the jug by the side of the man in black, she brought him a glass and
spoon, and a tea-cup, the latter containing various lumps of snowy-white
sugar: in the meantime I had produced a bottle of the stronger liquid.
The man in black helped himself to some water, and likewise to some
Hollands, the proportion of water being about two-thirds; then adding a
lump of sugar, he stirred the whole up, tasted it, and said that it was
good.

'This is one of the good things of life,' he added, after a short pause.

'What are the others?' I demanded.

'There is Malvoisia sack,' said the man in black, 'and partridge, and
beccafico.'

'And what do you say to high mass?' said I.

'High mass!' said the man in black; 'however,' he continued, after a
pause, 'I will be frank with you; I came to be so; I may have heard high
mass on a time, and said it too; but as for any predilectio