e the Countess Cheer. There is a citadel of virtue! It
has been stormed and taken so many times that I wonder it is not in
ruins, and yet here it is defiant, with banners flying. Wonderful.
She--"

"Hold!" I cried. "I have enough. I would have leave to try and collect
my wits. But one thing I would know at once. I thought you were a shy
scholar, and here you clatter away with the tongue of an old rake. You
amaze me. Tell me why you do this? Why do you use your brain to
examine this muck?"

"'Tis my recreation," he answered simply. "In my boyhood I was allowed
no games, and in the greater part of my manhood I have been too busy.
Of late years I have more leisure, and I often have sought here a
little innocent amusement, something to take one's mind off one's own
affairs, and yet not of such an arduous nature as would make one's
head tired."

"By my faith, it would make my head tired," I said. "What with
remembering the names of the people and all the different crimes, I
should go raving mad." But what still amazed me was the fact that this
little man, habitually meek, frightened and easily trodden down in
most ordinary matters, should be able to turn himself upon occasion
into a fierce and howling wolf of scandal, baying his betters, waiting
for the time when an exhausted one fell in the snow, and then burying
his remorseless teeth in him. What a quaint little Doctor Chord.

"But tell me truly," said I. "Is there no virtuous lady or honest
gentleman in all this great crowd?"

He stared, his jaw dropping. "Strap me, the place is full of them," he
ejaculated. "They are as thick as flies in a fish-market."

"Well, then," said I, "let us talk of them. 'Tis well to furbish and
burnish our minds with tales of rectitude and honour."

But the little Doctor was no longer happy. "There is nought to say,"
he answered gloomily. "They are as quiet as Bibles. They make no
recreation for me. I have scant interest in them."

"Oh, you little rogue, you!" I cried. "What a precious little bunch of
evil it is! 'They make no recreation for me,' quoth he. Here's a
great, bold, outspoken monster. But, mark you, sir, I am a younger
man, but I too have a bold tongue in my head, and I am saying that I
have friends among ladies in London, and if I catch you so much as
whispering their names in your sleep, I'll cut off your ears and eat
them. I speak few words, as you may have noted, but I keep my
engagements, you little brew of trouble,