artridge in the
doing of it. I stunned him. And it gave us three hours, by which we
should make haste to profit; for if there is one thing sure, it is that
he will be up to time again to-morrow in the morning."

"Well," said I, "I own myself an idiot. Well do they say, _An old
soldier, an old innocent!_ For I guessed nothing of all this."

"And, guessing it, have you the same objections to leave England?" he
inquired.

"The same," said I.

"It is indispensable," he objected.

"And it cannot be," I replied. "Reason has nothing to say in the matter;
and I must not let you squander any of yours. It will be enough to tell
you this is an affair of the heart."

"Is it even so?" quoth Romaine, nodding his head. "And I might have been
sure of it. Place them in a hospital, put them in a gaol in yellow
overalls, do what you will, young Jessamy finds young Jenny. O, have it
your own way; I am too old a hand to argue with young gentlemen who
choose to fancy themselves in love; I have too much experience, thank
you. Only, be sure that you appreciate what you risk: the prison, the
dock, the gallows, and the halter--terribly vulgar circumstances, my
young friend; grim, sordid, earnest; no poetry in that!"

"And there I am warned," I returned gaily. "No man could be warned more
finely or with a greater eloquence. And I am of the same opinion still.
Until I have again seen that lady, nothing shall induce me to quit Great
Britain. I have besides----"

And here I came to a full stop. It was upon my tongue to have told him
the story of the drovers, but at the first word of it my voice died in
my throat. There might be a limit to the lawyer's toleration, I
reflected. I had not been so long in Britain altogether; for the most
part of that time I had been by the heels in limbo in Edinburgh Castle;
and already I had confessed to killing one man with a pair of scissors;
and now I was to go on and plead guilty to having settled another with a
holly stick! A wave of discretion went over me as cold and as deep as
the sea.

"In short, sir, this is a matter of feeling," I concluded, "and nothing
will prevent my going to Edinburgh."

If I had fired a pistol in his ear he could not have been more startled.

"To Edinburgh?" he repeated. "Edinburgh? where the very paving-stones
know you!"

"Then is the murder out!" said I. "But, Mr. Romaine, is there not
sometimes safety in boldness? Is it not a common-place of strategy to
get where the