to Putney, after a whole night at Crawley's, and with an
old shooting-jacket and Jim-crow on him, and a garden-rake in his hand,
you 'd never suspect he was the fellow who had cleared out the company
and carried off every shilling at billiards and blind-hookey. Poor old
Kit, how fond I am of him!"

A stare, whose meaning Spicer could not fathom, was the only reply to
the speech.

"And he was so fond of _me!_ I was the only one of them all he could
trust. He liked Beech--I mean his Lordship there; he was always
attached to him, but whenever it was really a touch-and-go thing, a
nice operation, then he'd say, 'Where's Ginger? give me Ginger!' The
adventures we've had together would make a book; and do you know that
more than once I thought of writing them, or getting a fellow to write
them, for it's all the same. I'd have called it 'Grog and Ginger.'
Wouldn't that take?"

She made no reply; her face was, perhaps, a thought paler, but unchanged
in expression.

"And then the scenes we've gone through!--dangerous enough some of them;
he rather liked that, and _I_ own it never was my taste."

"I am surprised to hear you say so, sir," said she, in a low but very
distinct voice; "I'd have imagined exactly the reverse."

"Indeed! and may I make so bold as to ask why?"

"Simply, sir, that a gentleman so worldly-wise as yourself must always
be supposed to calculate eventualities, and not incur, willingly at
least, those he has no mind for. To be plain, sir, I 'm at a loss to
understand how one not fond of peril should hazard the chance of being
thrown out of a window,--don't start, I 'm only a woman, and cannot do
it, nor, though I have rung for the servant, am I going to order _him_.
For this time it shall be the door." And, rising proudly, she walked
toward the window; but ere she reached it, Spicer was gone.

"What's become of Spicer, Lizzy?" said Beecher, indolently, as his eyes
traversed the room in search of him.

"He has taken his leave," said she, in a voice as careless.

"He's tiresome, I think," yawned he; "at least, I find him so."

She made no reply, but sat down to compose her thoughts, somewhat
ruffled by the late scene.

"Ain't it time to order the carriage? I told Georgy we'd come early,"
added he, after a pause.

"I almost think I'll not go to-night," said she, in a low voice.

"Not go! You don't mean that when my sister-in-law sends you a message
to come and see her that you 'll refuse!" cried he