d.

"Dear bless me, Mrs. Graves, I don't know! This boy says he has been
waiting for you all these hours down in Crown Alley."

"That's an untruth," said Graves; "but what do I hear him saying about
the ladies?"

"There's been a brawl in the lobby of the Assembly Room, and they say
the baronet and young Mr. Travers will fight afore they settle it."

Graves descended now to the kitchen, and asked with bated breath if Zach
was telling the truth now, "for," she added, "the mouth of them that
speak lies shall be stopped."

Zach's little eyes twinkled. He knew he had got his reward, so Mistress
Graves might say what she liked.

"Yes," he whined, "it's a fine thing to keep a little chap like me, who
works hard all day, awaiting in a place like Crown Alley."

Graves took Zach by the arm and shook him vehemently.

"You weren't there. You were gossiping by the Assembly Room door. What
did you hear there?"

Zach made a face, and said:

"Let go, and I'll tell you." Graves relaxed her hold. "I heard the young
gent tell Sir Maxwell he was a liar, and he'd fight him about Miss
Mainwaring. There! you've told me _I'm_ a liar, and I'd like to fight
_you_" quoth Zach savagely.

CHAPTER XV.

CHALLENGED.

When the first heat of passion was over, Leslie Travers went sorrowfully
towards his home in King Street.

Mr. Beresford would not leave him till he saw him safely to the door,
which was opened by Giles, who greeted his young master with a yawn, and
said:

"The mistress has been a-bed these three hours. Ye are burning the
candle at both ends, Master Leslie."

Something in Leslie's manner struck the old servant. He preceded his
young master to the parlour, threw on a log, and lighted two candles,
which stood like tall sentinels on either side of the mantelshelf, in
heavy brass candlesticks.

"There's nothing like light and warmth if folks are down-hearted," he
said to himself; "and really the young master looks down-hearted. Ah!
it's the world and its ways. The mistress has the best of it."

Little did Giles's mistress think, as she slept peacefully that night,
how the leaden hours dragged on in the room below, where Leslie Travers
sat and wrestled with that most relentless foe--an uneasy conscience.

A hundred years ago duels were common enough, and any man who was
challenged would have been scouted as a coward if he had not accepted
the challenge.

Leslie knew he had thrown the lie back to Sir Maxwell D