d glance at the house.

"Oh, I'll be careful," I laughed. "Yes, and I'll let you go. But just
tell me, Betsy, what do you think of Mr. Smugg?"

"I don't think that of him!" said she, snapping her pretty red fingers.
"Joe 'ud make ten of him. I wish Joe'd talk to him a bit."

The end came soon after this, and, in spite of our attitude (I speak of
us four, not of Smugg) of whole-heartedness, I think it was rather a
shock to us all, when Joe announced one morning, on his arrival with
the chops, that he was to be made a happy man at the church next day.
Smugg was not in the room, and the rest of us congratulated Joe, and
made up a purse for him to give Pyrrha, with our best respects, and he
bowed himself out, mightily pleased, and asseverating that we were real
gentlemen. Then we sat and looked at the table.

"It robs us of a resource," pronounced Gayford, once again making
himself the mouthpiece of the party. We all nodded, and filled fresh
pipes.

Presently Smugg sidled in. We had seen little of him the last week;
save when he was construing he had taken refuge in his own room. When
he came in now, Gayford wagged his head significantly at me;
apparently, it was my task to bell the cat. I rose, and went to the
mantelpiece. Smugg had sat down at the table, and my back was to him.
I took a match from the box, struck it, and applied it to my pipe, and,
punctuating my words with interspersed puffings, I said carelessly:

"By the way, Smugg, Pyrrha's going to be married to Joe Shanks
to-morrow."

I don't know how he looked. I kept my face from him, but, after a long
minute's pause, he answered:

"Thank you, Robertson. It's Aeschylus this morning, isn't it?"

We had a noisy evening that night. I suppose we felt below par, and
wanted cheering up. Anyhow, we made an expedition to the grocer's, and
amazed him with a demand for his best champagne and his choicest
sherry. We carried the goods home in a bag, and sat down to a revel.
Smugg had some bread and cheese in his own room; he said that he had
letters to write. We dined largely, and drank still more largely; then
we sang, and at last--it was near on twelve, a terrible hour for that
neighborhood--we made our way, amid much boisterousness and horseplay,
to bed; where I, at least, was asleep in five minutes.

As the church clock struck two, I awoke. I heard a sound of movement
in Smugg's room next door. I lay and listened. Presently his door
opened, and