for driving a bargain with the
baronet; so in the end Sir George too was set aside.

There remained only the Buona Figliuola--the girl herself. 'I might pay
my court to her,' the tutor thought, 'but she would have a spite against
me for last night's work, and I doubt I could not do much. To be sure, I
might put her on her guard against Dunborough, and trust to her
gratitude; but it is ten to one she would not believe me. Or I could let
him play his trick--if he is fool enough to put his neck in a noose--and
step in and save her at the last moment. Ah!' Mr. Thomasson continued,
looking up to the ceiling in a flabby ecstasy of appreciation, 'If I had
the courage! That were a game to play indeed, Frederick Thomasson!'

It was, but it was hazardous; and the schemer rose and walked the floor,
striving to discover a safer mode of founding his claim. He found none,
however; and presently, with a wry face, he took out a letter which he
had received on the eve of his departure from Oxford--a letter from a
dun, threatening process and arrest. The sum was one which a year's
stipend of a fat living would discharge; and until the receipt of the
letter the tutor, long familiar with embarrassment, had taken the matter
lightly. But the letter was to the point, and meant business--a spunging
house and the Fleet; and with the cold shade of the Rules in immediate
prospect, Mr. Thomasson saw himself at his wits' end. He thought and
thought, and presently despair bred in him a bastard courage.

Buoyed up by this he tried to picture the scene; the lonely road, the
carriage, the shrieking girl, the ruffians looking fearfully up and down
as they strove to silence her; and himself running to the rescue; as Mr.
Burchell ran with the big stick, in Mr. Goldsmith's novel, which he had
read a few months before. Then the struggle. He saw himself
knocked--well, pushed down; after all, with care, he might play a fine
part without much risk. The men might fly either at sight of him, or
when he drew nearer and added his shouts to the girl's cries; or--or
some one else might come up, by chance or summoned by the uproar! In a
minute it would be over; in a minute--and what a rich reward he
might reap.

Nevertheless he did not feel sure he would be able to do it. His heart
thumped, and his smile grew sickly, and he passed his tongue again and
again over his dry lips, as he thought of the venture. But do it or not
when the time came, he would at least giv