doing an insult was intended.
This being the case, he will, I am sure, agree with me that he ought not
to take any notice of Mr. Wilford's remark."

"Yes, to be sure, that's it--all right, eh?" exclaimed Lawless; "come,
Fairlegh, as a favour to me, let the matter end here."

Thus urged, I could only reply, that "I was quite willing to defer to
their judgment, and do whatever they considered right "--and as Wilford
(though I could see that he was annoyed beyond measure at having failed
in persuading Lawless to give the toast) remained silent, merely curling
his lip contemptuously when I spoke, here the affair ended.

As soon as the conversation became general Oaklands turned to me with
a mischievous smile, and asked, in an undertone, "Pray, Master Frank,
what's become of all the wisdom and prudence recommended to me this
morning? I am afraid you quite exhausted your stock, and have not
reserved any for your own use. Who's the fire-eater now, I wonder?"

"Laugh away, Harry; I may have acted foolishly, as is usually the case
where one acts entirely from impulse; but I could not have sat tamely
by and heard Clara Saville's name polluted by the-remarks of such men
as Curtis and Wilford--I should have got into a row with them sooner or
later, and it was better to check the thing at once."

"My dear boy," returned Oaklands, "do not imagine for a moment that I
am inclined to blame you; the only thing that I could not help feeling
rather amused at, was your throwing down the gauntlet to the gentleman
opposite, when I recollected a certain lecture on prudence, with which I
was victimised this morning."

"As you are strong, be merciful," replied I; "and, whenever I do a
foolish thing, may I always have such a friend at hand to save me from
the consequences."

~170~~"That's a toast I will drink most willingly," said Oaklands
smiling; "the more so, as it reverses the position in which we generally
stand with regard to each other, the alteration being decidedly in my
favour; but--" he continued, interrupting himself, "what on earth are
they laughing at, and making such a row about?"

"Oh, it's merely Curtis romancing with the most unmitigated effrontery,
about something that neither he, nor any one else, ever did out
hunting," replied Archer; "a tremendous leap, I fancy it was."

"Do not be too sure that it is impossible," replied I; "a horse once
cleared the mouth of a chalk pit with me on its back, when I was a boy;
Lawl