oncile herself to travelling with a perfect
stranger under such circumstances?"

"That I can explain perfectly to you. You must know that when my darling
Loo consented to take this step, which I induced her to do with the
greatest difficulty, she made the proviso I have just mentioned; I at
once showed her that I had no maiden aunt or married sister to confide
her to at such a moment, and what was to be done? She immediately
replied, 'Have you no elderly brother officer, whose years and discretion
will put the transaction in such a light as to silence the slanderous
tongues of the world, for with such a man I am quite ready and willing to
trust myself.' You see I was hard pushed there. What could I do?--whom
could I select? Old Hayes, the paymaster, is always tipsy; Jones is
five-and-forty--but egad! I'm not so sure I'd have found my betrothed at
the end of the stage. You were my only hope; I knew I could rely upon
you. You would carry on the whole affair with tact and discretion; and
as to age, your stage experience would enable you, with a little
assistance from costume, to pass muster; besides that, I have always
represented you as the very Methuselah of the corps; and in the grey dawn
of an autumnal morning--with maiden bashfulness assisting--the scrutiny
is not likely to be a close one. So, now, your consent is alone wanting
to complete the arrangements which, before this time to-morrow, shall
have made me the happiest of mortals."

Having expressed, in fitting terms, my full sense of obligation for the
delicate flattery with which he pictured me as "Old Lorrequer" to the
Lady, I begged a more detailed account of his plan, which I shall shorten
for my reader's sake, by the following brief expose.

A post-chaise and four was to be in waiting at five o'clock in the
morning to convey me to Sir Alfred Jonson's residence, about twelve miles
distant. There I was to be met by a lady at the gate-lodge, who was
subsequently to accompany me to a small village on the Nore, where an old
college friend of Curzon's happened to reside, as parson, and by whom the
treaty was to be concluded.

This was all simple and clear enough--the only condition necessary to
insure success being punctuality, particularly on the lady's part. As to
mine I readily promised my best aid and warmest efforts in my friend's
behalf.

"There is only one thing more," said Curzon. "Louisa's younger brother
is a devilish hot-headed, wild sor