ured me were never written, you'd have seen that I
only desire to know the name of your banker in town, that I may order my
agent to remit the money.'

"'Let us make no more mistakes about an address, my Lord,' said I. 'I
'll take a check for the amount now,' and he gave it. He sat down and
wrote me an order on Hedges and Holt, Pall Mall, for fifteen hundred
pounds.

"I was so overcome by the promptitude and by the grand manner he
handed it to me, that I am free to confess I was heartily ashamed of my
previous rudeness, and would have given a handsome discount off my check
to have been able to obliterate all memory of my insolence.

"'Is there anything more between us, Mr. Cutbill?' said he, politely;
'for I think it would be a mutual benefit if we could settle all our
outlying transactions at the present interview.'

"'Well,' said I, 'there 's that two thousand of the parson's, paid in,
if you remember, after Portlaw's report to your Lordship that the whole
scheme must founder.'

"He tried to browbeat at this. It was a matter in which I had no
concern; it was a question which Mr. L'Estrange was at full liberty
to bring before the courts of law; my statement about Portlaw was
incorrect; dates were against me, law was against me, custom was against
me, and at last it was nigh dinner-hour, and time was against me;
'unless,' said he, with a change of voice I never heard equalled off
the stage, 'you will stay and eat a very humble dinner with Temple and
myself, for my Lady is indisposed.'

"To be almost on fighting terms with a man ten minutes ago, and to
accept his invitation to dinner now, seemed to me one of those things
perfectly beyond human accomplishment; but the way in which he tendered
the invitation, and the altered tone he imparted to his manner, made me
feel that not to imitate him was to stamp myself forever as one of those
vulgar dogs whom he had just been ridiculing, and I assented.

"I have a perfect recollection of a superb dinner; but beyond that,
and that the champagne was decanted, and that there was a large cheese
stuffed with truffles, and that there were ortolans in ice, I know
nothing. It was one of the pleasantest evenings I ever passed in my
life. I sang several songs, and might have sung more if a message
had not come from my Lady to beg that the piano might be stopped,--an
intimation which closed the _seance_; and I said good-night. The next
morning Temple called to say my Lord was too mu