as another."

"Very well. Then you'll appreciate what I say about bottled porter.
It's a good thing when you have it in a tumbler, and the tumbler in
your hand, and you thirsty."

"It is." Callaghan spoke with conviction. He was thirsty at the
moment, and he had some hope that Meldon might possibly have the bottle
of which he spoke in his pocket. He was disappointed when Meldon went
on with his speech.

"But it's not a good thing when somebody jogs your elbow and spills the
whole of it over the legs of your trousers. Now it's exactly the same
with truth. It's all right under certain circumstances. It's one of
the worst things going when it's told to the wrong man at the wrong
time. You follow me so far, I hope. Very well. Now I want to make it
plain to you that the truth about Mr. Simpkins must not be told to Miss
King. I expect he'll be up to call on her tomorrow or next day, and
it's most important that she should not be prejudiced against him."

"Have you a match made up between them?" asked Callaghan.

"I have."

"And why couldn't you have said so before? If that's the way of it, it
isn't likely I'd be saying a word that would turn her against the man
that's laid down for her to marry. There was a friend of my own one
time that had a match made up for his son with a girl that had a good
fortune. But there was only one leg on her, and he was terrible feared
that the boy'd never take her if he found it out. There wasn't one in
the place, only myself, that knew the way the girl was on account of
her father living away beyond the bog. Do you think I said the word?
I did not. And the boy was well enough pleased at the latter end."

"In this particular case," said Meldon, "you'll have to do rather more
than keep your mouth shut. Simpkins' legs are all right, of course,
but--"

"He has the divil of a long tongue."

"Well, don't dwell on his tongue when you're talking about him to Miss
King."

"Beyond saying an odd time that he's a pleasant-spoken gentleman, I
will not."

"That's right," said Meldon. "I shall rely absolutely on you. And you
are to let me know from time to time how they get on together when he
comes up here to visit her."

"If there's any impropriety of conduct between them," said Callaghan,
"I'll speak to your reverence."

"Don't misunderstand me," said Meldon. "I don't want to interfere with
their love-making. The more of that they do, the better I'll be
pleased. Ev