mouth. 'What else?'

'Well a kiss,' replied Hugh, after some hesitation.

'And what else?'

'Nothing.'

'I think,' said Mr Chester, in the same easy tone, and smiling twice or
thrice to try if the patch adhered--'I think there was something else.
I have heard a trifle of jewellery spoken of--a mere trifle--a thing
of such little value, indeed, that you may have forgotten it. Do you
remember anything of the kind--such as a bracelet now, for instance?'

Hugh with a muttered oath thrust his hand into his breast, and drawing
the bracelet forth, wrapped in a scrap of hay, was about to lay it on
the table likewise, when his patron stopped his hand and bade him put it
up again.

'You took that for yourself my excellent friend,' he said, 'and may keep
it. I am neither a thief nor a receiver. Don't show it to me. You had
better hide it again, and lose no time. Don't let me see where you put
it either,' he added, turning away his head.

'You're not a receiver!' said Hugh bluntly, despite the increasing awe
in which he held him. 'What do you call THAT, master?' striking the
letter with his heavy hand.

'I call that quite another thing,' said Mr Chester coolly. 'I shall
prove it presently, as you will see. You are thirsty, I suppose?'

Hugh drew his sleeve across his lips, and gruffly answered yes.

'Step to that closet and bring me a bottle you will see there, and a
glass.'

He obeyed. His patron followed him with his eyes, and when his back was
turned, smiled as he had never done when he stood beside the mirror.
On his return he filled the glass, and bade him drink. That dram
despatched, he poured him out another, and another.

'How many can you bear?' he said, filling the glass again.

'As many as you like to give me. Pour on. Fill high. A bumper with a
bead in the middle! Give me enough of this,' he added, as he tossed it
down his hairy throat, 'and I'll do murder if you ask me!'

'As I don't mean to ask you, and you might possibly do it without
being invited if you went on much further,' said Mr Chester with great
composure, we will stop, if agreeable to you, my good friend, at the
next glass. You were drinking before you came here.'

'I always am when I can get it,' cried Hugh boisterously, waving the
empty glass above his head, and throwing himself into a rude dancing
attitude. 'I always am. Why not? Ha ha ha! What's so good to me as this?
What ever has been? What else has kept away the cold on bitter nigh