mean time Colonel Royale was helping me on
with my coat and waistcoat, although I hardly knew that either he or
the coat or waistcoat were in existence.

I had my usual inclination to go forward and explain to everybody how
it all had happened. But Royale took me forcibly by the arm, and we
turned our backs on Strepp and Forister and walked toward the inn.

As soon as we were out of their sight, Colonel Royale clasped my hands
with rapture. "My boy," he cried, "you are great! You are renowned!
You are illustrious! What a game you could give Ponsonby! You would
give him such a stir!"

"Never doubt me," said I. "But I am now your legitimate grandfather,
and I should be treated with great respect."

When we came near the inn I began to glance up at the windows. I
surely expected to see a face at one of them. Certainly she would care
to know who was slain or who was hurt. She would be watching, I fondly
hoped, to see who returned on his legs. But the front of the inn
stared at us, chilly and vacant, like a prison wall.

When we entered, the Colonel bawled lustily for an immediate bottle of
wine, and I joined him in its drinking, for I knew that it would be a
bellows to my flagging spirits. I had set my heart upon seeing a face
at the window of the inn.

CHAPTER X

And now I found out what it was to be a famous swordsman. All that day
the inn seemed to hum with my name. I could not step down a corridor
without seeing flocks of servants taking wing. They fled tumultuously.
A silly maid coming from a chamber with a bucket saw me and shrieked.
She dropped her bucket and fled back into the chamber. A man-servant
saw me, gave a low moan of terror, and leaped down a convenient
stairway. All attendants scuttled aside.

What was the matter with me? Had I grown in stature or developed a
ferocious ugliness? No; I now was a famous swordsman. That was all. I
now was expected to try to grab the maids and kiss them wantonly. I
now was expected to clout the grooms on their ears if they so much as
showed themselves in my sight. In fact, I was now a great blustering,
overpowering, preposterous ass.

There was a crowd of people in the coffee-room, but the buzz of talk
suddenly ceased as I entered.

"Is this your chair, sir?" said I civilly to a gentleman.

He stepped away from the chair as if it had tried to bite him.

"'Tis at your service, sir!" he cried hastily.

"No," said I, "I would not be taking it if it be your