ceremonies, of decencies and quackeries,
gazing gravely upon this low, daredevil ruffian:--the well-to-do
hypocrite--the penniless villain;--the man who had everything to
lose--the man who had nothing in the wide world but his own mischievous,
rascally life, a gold watch, chain and seals, which he had stolen the
day before, and thirteen shillings and threepence halfpenny in his left
breeches pocket!

The man of wealth was by no means well acquainted with the nature of
the beast before him. He had heard from Mrs. Leslie (as we remember)
the outline of Alice's history, and ascertained that their joint
_protegee's_ father was a great blackguard; but he expected to find Mr.
Darvil a mere dull, brutish villain--a peasant-ruffian--a blunt serf,
without brains, or their substitute, effrontery. But Luke Darvil was a
clever, half-educated fellow: he did not sin from ignorance, but had wit
enough to have bad principles, and he was as impudent as if he had lived
all his life in the best society. He was not frightened at the banker's
drab breeches and imposing air--not he! The Duke of Wellington would not
have frightened Luke Darvil, unless his grace had had the constables for
his _aides-de-camp_.

The banker, to use a homely phrase, was "taken aback."

"Look you here, Mr. What's-your-name!" said Darvil, swallowing a glass
of the raw alcohol as if it had been water--"look you now--you can't
humbug me. What the devil do you care about my daughter's respectability
or comfort, or anything else, grave old dog as you are! It is my
daughter herself you are licking your brown old chaps at!--and, 'faith,
my Alley is a very pretty girl--very--but queer as moonshine. You'll
drive a much better bargain with me than with her."

The banker coloured scarlet--he bit his lips and measured his companion
from head to foot (while the latter lolled on the sofa), as if he were
meditating the possibility of kicking him down-stairs. But Luke Darvil
would have thrashed the banker and all his clerks into the bargain. His
frame was like a trunk of thews and muscles, packed up by that careful
dame, Nature, as tightly as possible; and a prizefighter would have
thought twice before he had entered the ring against so awkward a
customer. The banker was a man prudent to a fault, and he pushed his
chair six inches back, as he concluded his survey.

"Sir," then said he, very quietly, "do not let us misunderstand each
other. Your daughter is safe from your cont