o remember that you are a Lord,
and I a leg,--it is not that I mean,--you 're not very like to forget
it; it is to call to mind that I have the same grip of you I have
had any day these ten years, and that I could show up the Viscount
Lackington just as easily as the Honorable Annesley Beecher."

If Beecher's cheek grew paler, it was only for a moment, and, with an
amount of calm dignity of which Grog had not believed him capable, he
said,--

"There's not any use in your employing this language towards
me,--there's not the slightest necessity for me to listen to it. I
conclude, after what has passed between us, we cannot be friends:
there's no need, however, of our being enemies."

"Which means, 'I wish you a very good-morning, Kit Davis,' don't it?"
said Grog, with a grin.

Beecher gave a smile that might imply anything.

"Ah! so that's it?" cried Davis, endeavoring, by any means, to provoke a
reply.

Beecher made no answer, but proceeded in most leisurely style with his
dressing. #

"Well, that's candid, anyhow," said Grog, sternly. "Now, I 'll be as
frank with _you_: I thought a few days back that I 'd done rather a good
thing of it, but I find that I backed the wrong horse after all. You are
the Viscount, now, but you won't be so this day six months."

Beecher turned his head round, and gave a smile of the most insolent
incredulity.

"Ay, I know you'll not believe it, because it is I that tell you; but
there came out a fellow from Fordyce's with the same story, and when you
open your letters you 'll see it again."

Beecher's courage now deserted him, and the chair on which he leaned
shook under his grasp.

"Here's how it is," said Grog, in a calm, deliberate tone: "Dunn--that
same fellow we called on one day together--has fallen upon a paper--a
title, or a patent, or a writ, or something--that shows you have no
claim to the Viscounty, and that it ought to go, along with the estates,
to some man who represents the elder branch. Now Dunn, it seems, was
some way deep with your brother. He had been buying land for him,
and not paying, or paying the money and not getting the land,--at all
events, he was n't on the square with him; and seeing that you might
probably bring him to book, he just says, 'Don't go into accounts with
me, and here's your title; give me any trouble, and I 'll go over to the
enemy.'"

"But there can be no such document."

"Fordyce's people say there is. Hankes, Dunn's own agent, t