it was to have his
bills protested, his chattels seized, his person arrested; he had
been browbeaten by Bankruptcy Commissioners, and bullied by sheriffs'
officers; tradesmen had refused him credit; tailors abjured his
custom; he had "burned his fingers" in one or two not very creditable
transactions; but still, with all this, there was yet one depth to which
he had not descended,--he was never seen in public with a "wrong man."
He had a jerk of the head, a wink, or a glance for the leg who met him
in Piccadilly, as every one else had. If he saw him in the garden of the
Star and Garter, or the park at Greenwich, he might even condescend to
banter him on "looking jolly," and ask what new "robbery" he was in for;
but as to descending to intimacy or companionship openly before the gaze
of the world, he 'd as soon have thought of playing cad to a 'bus, or
sweep at a crossing.

It was true the Continent was not Hyde Park,--the most strait-laced
and well-conducted did fifty things there they had never ventured on
at home. Foreign travel had its license, and a passport was a sort of
plenary indulgence for many a social transgression; but, with all this,
there were a few names--about half a dozen in all Europe--that no man
could afford to link his own along with.

As for Grog, he was known everywhere. From Ostend to Odessa his fame
extended, and there was scarcely a police prefect in the travelled
districts of the Continent that had not a description of his person,
and some secret instructions respecting him. From many of the smaller
states, whose vigilance is in the ratio of their littleness, he was
rigidly excluded; so that in his journeying through Europe, he was often
reduced to a zigzag and erratic procedure, not unlike the game known
to schoolboys as scotch-hop. In the ten minutes--it was not more--that
Beecher passed in recalling these and like facts to his memory, his mind
grew more and more perplexed; nor was the embarrassment unperceived by
him who caused it. As Davis sipped and smoked, he stole frequent glances
at his companion's face, and strove to read what was passing in his
mind. "It may be," thought Grog, "he does n't see his way to raising the
money. It may be that his credit is lower in the market than I fancied;
or"--and now his fiery eyes grew fiercer and his lip more tense--"or
it may be that he doesn't fancy _my_ company. If I was only sure it was
_that_," muttered he between his teeth; and had Annesley B