llows were not constables, but just my cousin Eiran and two
footmen in disguise. Nay, madam, you will learn with experience that
to display unfailing candor is not without exception the price of
happiness."

"But this, I think, evades our bargain, Mr. Sheridan. For you were
committed to pilfer property to the value of L10,000----"

"And to fulfil the obligation I have stolen your hand in marriage.
What, madam! do you indeed pretend that any person outside of Bedlam
would value you at less? Believe me, your perfections are of far more
worth. All persons recognize that save yourself, incomparable Esther
Jane; and yet, so patent is the proof of my contention, I dare to leave
the verdict to your sense of justice."

Miss Ogle did not speak. Her lashes fell as, with some ceremony, he
led her to the long French mirror which was in the breakfast room.
"See now!" said Mr. Sheridan. "You, who endanger life and fame in
order to provide a mendicant with gruel, tracts and blankets! You, who
deny a sop to the one hunger which is vital! Oh, madam, I am tempted
glibly to compare your eyes to sapphires, and your hair to thin-spun
gold, and the color of your flesh to the arbutus-flower--for that, as
you can see, would be within the truth, and it would please most women,
and afterward they would not be so obdurate. But you are not like
other women," Mr. Sheridan observed, with admirable dexterity. "And I
aspire to you, the irresistible Ogle! you, who so great-heartedly
befriend the beggar! you, who with such industry contrive alleviation
for the discomforts of poverty. Eh, eh! what will you grant to any
beggar such as I? Will you deny a sop to the one hunger which is
vital?" He spoke with unaccustomed vigor, even in a sort of terror,
because he knew that he was speaking with sincerity.

"To the one hunger which is vital!" he repeated. "Ah, where lies the
secret which makes one face the dearest in the world, and entrusts to
one little hand a life's happiness as a plaything? All Aristotle's
learning could not unriddle the mystery, and Samson's thews were
impotent to break that spell. Love vanquishes all. . . . You would
remind me of some previous skirmishings with Venus's unconquerable
brat? Nay, madam, to the contrary, the fact that I have loved many
other women is my strongest plea for toleration. Were there nothing
else, it is indisputable we perform all actions better for having
rehearsed them. No, we do not of n