y country compel me' to prosecute
him, yet, should he desire it, he may be certain that I will preserve
his secret. Come, Brandon, what say you to that manoeuvre? It will
answer my purpose, and make the gentleman--for doubtless he is all
sensibility--shed tears at my generous forbearance!"

"It is no bad idea," said Brandon. "I commend you for it. At all events,
it is necessary that my niece should not know the situation of her
lover. She is a girl of a singular turn of mind, and fortune has made
her independent. Who knows but that she might commit some folly or
another, write petitions to the king, and beg me to present them, or
go--for she has a world of romance in her--to prison, to console him;
or, at all events, she would beg my kind offices on his behalf,--a
request peculiarly awkward, as in all probability I shall have the
honour of trying him."

"Ay, by the by, so you will. And I fancy the poor rogue's audacity
will not cause you to be less severe than you usually are. They say you
promise to make more human pendulums than any of your brethren."

"They do say that, do they?" said Brandon. "Well, I own I have a bile
against my species; I loathe their folly and their half vices. 'Ridet et
odit'--["He laughs and hates"]--is my motto; and I allow that it is not
the philosophy that makes men merciful!"

"Well, Juvenal's wisdom be yours, mine be Horace's!" rejoined
Mauleverer, as he picked his teeth; "but I am glad you see the absolute
necessity of keeping this secret from Lucy's suspicion. She never reads
the papers, I suppose? Girls never do!"

"No! and I will take care not to have them thrown in her way; and as, in
consequence of my poor brother's recent death, she sees nobody but us,
there is little chance, should Lovett's right to the name of Clifford be
discovered, that it should reach her ears."

"But those confounded servants?"

"True enough! But consider that before they know it, the newspapers
will; so that, should it be needful, we shall have our own time to
caution them. I need only say to Lucy's woman, 'A poor gentleman, a
friend of the late squire, whom your mistress used to dance with, and
you must have seen,--Captain Clifford,--is to be tried for his life. It
will shock her, poor thing! in her present state of health, to tell her
of so sad an event to her father's friend; therefore be silent, as
you value your place and ten guineas,'--and I may be tolerably sure of
caution!"

"You ought to be