,--George of sherry, and the servant probably of beer and
spirits alternately,--each making himself happy with a novel;
George's novel being French, and that of the servant English
sensational,--the reader, when he learns that on this very day Sir
Harry had interviews with Captain Stubber and also with Mrs. Morton,
will be disposed to think that things were not going very well for
Cousin George. But then the reader does not as yet know the nature of
the persistency of Emily Hotspur.

What Sir Harry did with Captain Stubber need not be minutely
described. There can be no doubt that Cousin George was not spared by
the Captain, and that when he understood what might be the result of
telling the truth, he told all that he knew. In that matter of the
L500 Cousin George had really been ill-treated. The payment had done
him no sort of service whatever. Of Captain Stubber's interview with
Sir Harry nothing further need now be said. But it must be explained
that Sir Harry, led astray by defective information, made a mistake
in regard to Mrs. Morton, and found out his mistake. He did not much
like Mrs. Morton, but he did not leave her without an ample apology.
From Mrs. Morton he learned nothing whatever in regard to Cousin
George,--nothing but this, that Mrs. Morton did not deny that she
was acquainted with Captain Hotspur. Mr. Boltby had learned, however,
that Cousin George had drawn the money for a cheque payable to her
order, and he had made himself nearly certain of the very nature of
the transaction.

Early on the morning after George's return he was run to ground by
Mr. Boltby's confidential clerk, at the hotel behind the club. It
was so early, to George at least, that he was still in bed. But the
clerk, who had breakfasted at eight, been at his office by nine, and
had worked hard for two hours and a half since, did not think it at
all early. George, who knew that his pheasant-shooting pleasure was
past, and that immediate trouble was in store for him, had consoled
himself over-night with a good deal of curacoa and seltzer and
brandy, and had taken these comforting potations after a bottle of
champagne. He was, consequently, rather out of sorts when he was run
to ground in his very bedroom by Boltby's clerk. He was cantankerous
at first, and told the clerk to go and be d----d. The clerk pleaded
Sir Harry. Sir Harry was in town, and wanted to see his cousin. A
meeting must, of course, be arranged. Sir Harry wished that it