with such folly? Shame on ye
both! Why not stick to the truth--and my cobble-stone?"

"And now, dear Sir John," says Pen, very soft and demure, "pray tell
me--how _did_ you hurt your foot?"

"Hey--what?" spluttered Jack, "don't I tell you--"

"A flight of steps, a stirrup, and a stone!" sighed Pen, shaking her
head at us each in turn.

"Now look'ee, Pen," says Jack, trying to bluster, "I say I'm not to be
badgered and brow-beaten by a slip of a girl--I say I'm not, by heaven!"

"Oh, my dears, my dears!" sighed Pen, reprovingly, "Isn't it time you
learned that you can keep few--very few secrets from me, who understand
you all so well because I love you all so well? I have been your
playfellow and companion so long that, methinks, I know you much better
than you know yourselves; I, who have had my word in all your councils?
How foolish then to think to put me off with such flimsy stories. Of
course I shall find out all about it, sooner or later, I always do. Yes,
I shall, even if I must needs hide in corners sirs, and hearken at
keyholes, and peep and pry--so I warn you." And with this, she nodded
and turned and left us to stare blankly at one another.

"That settles it!" said Bentley, gloomily, "she'll no more swallow thy
cobble-stone than Dick's flight of steps, Jack. She'll know the truth
before the week is out!"

"The minx!" cried Jack, "the jade!" And with the word he snatched off
his wig and hurled it into a corner.

"Jack," says I, "what's to be done?"

"Done?" he roared, "I'll pack her off to her Aunt Sophia to-morrow!"

"Aye," says Bentley, "but--will she go?"

"Bentley," says Jack, "I'll thank you to reach me my wig!"

CHAPTER FOUR

_Of how We fell in with a Highwayman at
the Cross Roads_

Myself and Bentley were returning from another dog-fight. This time my
dog had lost (which was but natural, seeing its very unfit condition,
though to be sure it looked well enough at a glance). Alas! the sport is
not what it was in my young days, when rogues can so put off a sick dog
upon the unsuspecting. Methinks 'tis becoming a very brutal, degrading
practice--have determined to have done with dog-fighting once and for
all. Bentley was in a high good humour (as was but to be expected,
seeing he had won nigh upon two hundred guineas of me), but then, as I
have said, Bentley never wins but he must needs show it.

"By the way,"