ed gentry."

"Nasty tempers?" I suggested.

"Beas'ly temper, sir, the Viscount 'ave," said the waiter with feeling.
"Why, no longer agone than this morning, he was sitting breakfasting and
reading in his paper. I suppose, sir, he come on some pilitical
information, or it might be about 'orses, but he raps his 'and upon the
table sudden and calls for curacoa. It gave me quite a turn, it did; he
did it that sudden and 'ard. Now, sir, that may be manners in France,
but hall I can say is, that I'm not used to it."

"Reading the paper, was he?" said I. "What paper, eh?"

"Here it is, sir," exclaimed the waiter. "Seems like as if he'd dropped
it."

And picking it off the floor he presented it to me.

I may say that I was quite prepared, that I already knew what to expect;
but at sight of the cold print my heart stopped beating. There it was:
the fulfilment of Romaine's apprehension was before me; the paper was
laid open at the capture of Clausel. I felt as if I could take a little
curacoa myself, but on second thoughts called for brandy. It was badly
wanted; and suddenly I observed the waiter's eye to sparkle, as it were,
with some recognition; made certain he had remarked the resemblance
between me and Alain; and became aware--as by a revelation--of the
fool's part I had been playing. For I had now managed to put my
identification beyond a doubt, if Alain should choose to make his
inquiries at Aylesbury: and, as if that were not enough, I had added, at
an expense of seventy pounds, a clue by which he might follow me
through the length and breadth of England, in the shape of the
claret-coloured chaise! That elegant equipage (which I began to regard
as little better than a claret-coloured ante-room to the hangman's cart)
coming presently to the door, I left my breakfast in the middle and
departed; posting to the north as diligently as my cousin Alain was
posting to the south, and putting my trust (such as it was) in an
opposite direction and equal speed.

CHAPTER XXII

CHARACTER AND ACQUIREMENTS OF MR. ROWLEY

I am not certain that I had ever really appreciated before that hour the
extreme peril of the adventure on which I was embarked. The sight of my
cousin, the look of his face--so handsome, so jovial at the first sight,
and branded with so much malignity as you saw it on the second--with his
hyperbolical curls in order, with his neckcloth tied as if for the
conquests of love, setting forth (as I had no d