and rallied his friend on having so narrowly escaped the prowess
of their muscular visitor.

'I can't be amused on this theme,' said Mortimer, restlessly. 'You can
make almost any theme amusing to me, Eugene, but not this.'

'Well!' cried Eugene, 'I am a little ashamed of it myself, and therefore
let us change the subject.'

'It is so deplorably underhanded,' said Mortimer. 'It is so unworthy of
you, this setting on of such a shameful scout.'

'We have changed the subject!' exclaimed Eugene, airily. 'We have found
a new one in that word, scout. Don't be like Patience on a mantelpiece
frowning at Dolls, but sit down, and I'll tell you something that you
really will find amusing. Take a cigar. Look at this of mine. I
light it--draw one puff--breathe the smoke out--there it goes--it's
Dolls!--it's gone--and being gone you are a man again.'

'Your subject,' said Mortimer, after lighting a cigar, and comforting
himself with a whiff or two, 'was scouts, Eugene.'

'Exactly. Isn't it droll that I never go out after dark, but I find
myself attended, always by one scout, and often by two?'

Lightwood took his cigar from his lips in surprise, and looked at his
friend, as if with a latent suspicion that there must be a jest or
hidden meaning in his words.

'On my honour, no,' said Wrayburn, answering the look and smiling
carelessly; 'I don't wonder at your supposing so, but on my honour, no.
I say what I mean. I never go out after dark, but I find myself in the
ludicrous situation of being followed and observed at a distance, always
by one scout, and often by two.'

'Are you sure, Eugene?'

'Sure? My dear boy, they are always the same.'

'But there's no process out against you. The Jews only threaten. They
have done nothing. Besides, they know where to find you, and I represent
you. Why take the trouble?'

'Observe the legal mind!' remarked Eugene, turning round to the
furniture again, with an air of indolent rapture. 'Observe the dyer's
hand, assimilating itself to what it works in,--or would work in, if
anybody would give it anything to do. Respected solicitor, it's not
that. The schoolmaster's abroad.'

'The schoolmaster?'

'Ay! Sometimes the schoolmaster and the pupil are both abroad. Why, how
soon you rust in my absence! You don't understand yet? Those fellows
who were here one night. They are the scouts I speak of, as doing me the
honour to attend me after dark.'

'How long has this been going on?' asked L