did we ever meet? That
fatal, fatal morning! The cedar tree rose before him, he recalled, he
remembered everything. And poor Glastonbury--it was a miserable end. He
could not disguise it from himself, he had been most imprudent, he
had been mad. And yet so near happiness, perfect, perfect happiness!
Henrietta might have been his, and they might have been so happy!
This confinement was dreadful; it began to press upon his nerves. No
occupation, not the slightest resource. He took up the Racing Calendar,
he threw it down again. He knew all the caricatures by heart, they
infinitely disgusted him. He walked up and down the room till he was so
tired that he flung himself upon the hard sofa. It was intolerable.

A gaol must be preferable to this. There must be some kind of wretched
amusement in a gaol; but this ignoble, this humiliating solitude, he was
confident he should go mad if he remained here. He rang the bell again.

'Yes, sir,' said the little waiter.

'This place is intolerable to me,' said Captain Armine. 'I really am
quite sick of it. What can I do?'

The waiter looked a little perplexed.

'I should like to go to gaol at once,' said Ferdinand.

'Lord! sir!' said the little waiter.

'Yes! I cannot bear this,' he continued; 'I shall go mad.'

'Don't you think your friends will call soon, sir?'

'I have no friends,' said Ferdinand. 'I hope nobody will call.'

'No friends!' said the little waiter, who began to think Ferdinand was
not such a nob as he had imagined. 'Why, if you have no friends, sir, it
would be best to go to the Fleet, I think.'

'By Jove, I think it would be better.'

'Master thinks your friends will call, I am sure.'

'Nobody knows I am here,' said Ferdinand.

'Oh!' said the little waiter, 'You want to let them know, do you, sir?'

'Anything sooner; I wish to conceal my disgrace.'

'O sir! you are not used to it; I dare say you never were nabbed
before?'

'Certainly not.'

'There it is; if you will be patient, you will see everything go well.'

'Never, my good fellow; nothing can go well.'

'O sir! you are not used to it. A regular nob like you, nabbed for the
first time, and for such a long figure, sir, sure not to be diddled.
Never knowed such a thing yet. Friends sure to stump down, sir.'

'The greater the claim, the more difficulty in satisfying it, I should
think,' said Ferdinand.

'Lord! no, sir: you are not used to it. It is only poor devils nabbed
for their fifties