Who is Chamberlayne?"

"Come, come, Skeffy, I 'm not in a joking mood;" and he glanced at the
letter in his hand as he spoke. "Don't worry me, old fellow, but say
that you have got the bag all right."

"But I have not, I never saw it,--never heard of it."

"And has the Colonel not been here?"

"Who is the Colonel?"

"Chamberlayne."

"And who is Chamberlayne."

"That _is_ cool, certainly; I think a man might acknowledge his
godfather."

"Whose godfather is he?"

"Yours,--your own. Perhaps you 'll deny that you were christened after
him, and called Chamberlayne?"

Skeffy threw up his embroidered cap in the air at these words, and,
flinging himself on a sofa, actually screamed with laughter. "Tony,"
cried he at last, "this will immortalize you. Of all the exploits
performed by messengers, this one takes the van."

"Look here, Damer," said Tony, sternly; "I have told you already I 'm
in no laughing humor. I 've had enough here to take the jollity out of
me"--and he shook the letter in his hand--"for many a day to come; so
that whatever you have to say to me, bear in mind that you say it to
one little disposed to good-humor. Is it true that you have not received
these despatches?"

"Perfectly true."

"Then how are we to trace him? His name is Colonel Moore Chamberlayne,
aide-de-camp to the Lord High Commissioner, Corfu."

Skeffy bit his lip, and by a great effort succeeded in repressing the
rising temptation to another scream of laughter, and, taking down a
bulky red-covered volume from a shelf, began to turn over its pages.
"There," said he at last,--"there is the Whole staff at Corfu: Hailes,
Winchester, Corbett, and Ainslie. No Chamberlayne amongst them."

Tony stared at the page in hopeless bewilderment. "What do you know
of him? Who introduced you to each other? Where did you meet?" asked
Skeffy.

"We met at the foot of the Mont Cenis, where, seeing that I had
despatches, and no means to get forward, he offered me a seat in his
caleche. I accepted gladly, and we got on capitally; he was immense fun;
he knew everybody, and had been everywhere; and when he told me that he
was your godfather--"

"Stop, stop! for the love of Heaven, will you stop, or you 'll kill me!"
cried Skeffy; and, throwing himself on his back on the sofa, he flung
his legs into the air, and yelled aloud with laughter.

"Do you know, Master Darner, I'm sorely tempted to pitch you neck and
crop out of the window?" said Tony, sav