"All right!" cried the coachman: the ostler twitched the cloths from
the leaders, and away went the "Nelson Slow and Sure," with as much
pretension as if it had meant to do the ten miles in an hour. The
pale gentleman took from his waistcoat pocket a little box containing
gum-arabic, and having inserted a couple of morsels between his lips,
he next drew forth a little thin volume, which from the manner the lines
were printed was evidently devoted to poetry.

The smart gentleman, who since the episode of the sherry and water
had kept his glass fixed upon the young lady, now said, with a genteel
smirk:

"That young gentleman seems very auttentive, miss!"

"He is a very good young man, sir, and takes great care of me."

"Not your brother, miss,--eh?"

"La, sir--why not?"

"No faumily likeness--noice-looking fellow enough! But your oiyes and
mouth--ah, miss!"

Miss turned away her head, and uttered with pert vivacity: "I never
likes compliments, sir! But the young man is not my brother."

"A sweetheart,--eh? Oh fie, miss! Haw! haw!" and the auburn-whiskered
Adonis poked Philip in the knee with one hand, and the pale gentleman
in the ribs with the other. The latter looked up, and reproachfully; the
former drew in his legs, and uttered an angry ejaculation.

"Well, sir, there is no harm in a sweetheart, is there?"

"None in the least, ma'am; I advoise you to double the dose. We often
hear of two strings to a bow. Daun't you think it would be noicer to
have two beaux to your string?" As he thus wittily expressed himself,
the gentleman took off his cap, and thrust his fingers through a very
curling and comely head of hair; the young lady looked at him with
evident coquetry, and said, "How you do run on, you gentlemen!"

"I may well run on, miss, as long as I run aufter you," was the gallant
reply.

Here the pale gentleman, evidently annoyed by being talked across, shut
his book up, and looked round. His eye rested on Philip, who, whether
from the heat of the day or from the forgetfulness of thought, had
pushed his cap from his brows; and the gentleman, after staring at him
for a few moments with great earnestness, sighed so heavily that it
attracted the notice of all the passengers.

"Are you unwell, sir?" asked the young lady, compassionately.

"A little pain in my side, nothing more!"

"Chaunge places with me, sir," cried the Lothario, officiously. "Now
do!" The pale gentleman, after a short hesitation, an