his shoes.

"E-hem!" said the rich man, clearing his throat, which seemed to him
uncommonly husky; "I do not know whether I insulted your poverty, my
dear Mr. Darvil--I hope not; but this is hardly a time for talking--pray
let me mount, and--"

"Not a time for talking!" interrupted Darvil angrily; "it's just the
time to my mind: let me consider,--ay, I told you that whenever we met
by the roadside it would be my turn to have the best of the argufying."

"I dare say--I dare say, my good fellow."

"Fellow not me!--I won't be fellowed now. I say I have the best of it
here--man to man--I am your match."

"But why quarrel with me?" said the banker, coaxingly; "I never meant
you harm, and I am sure you cannot mean me harm."

"No!--and why?" asked Darvil, coolly;--"why do you think I can mean you
no harm?"

"Because your annuity depends on me."

"Shrewdly put--we'll argufy that point. My life is a bad one, not worth
more than a year's purchase; now, suppose you have more than forty
pounds about you--it may be better worth my while to draw my knife
across your gullet than to wait for the quarter-day's ten pounds a
time. You see it's all a matter of calculation, my dear, Mr.
What's-your-name!"

"But," replied the banker, and his teeth began to chatter, "I have not
forty pounds about me."

"How do I know that?--you say so. Well, in the town yonder your word
goes for more than mine; I never gainsaid you when you put that to me,
did I? But here, by the haystack, my word is better than yours; and if
I say you must and shall have forty pounds about you, let's see whether
you dare contradict me."

"Look you, Darvil," said the banker, summoning up all his energy and
intellect, for his moral power began now to back his physical cowardice,
and he spoke calmly, and even bravely, though his heart throbbed
aloud against his breast, and you might have knocked him down with a
feather--"the London runners are even now hot after you."

"Ha!--you lie!"

"Upon my honour I speak the truth; I heard the news last evening. They
tracked you to C------; they tracked you out of the town; a word from me
would have given you into their hands. I said nothing--you are safe--you
may yet escape. I will even help you to fly the country, and live out
your natural date of years, secure and in peace."

"You did not say that the other day in the snug drawing-room; you see I
have the best of it now--own that."

"I do," said the banker.

Darvi