on of his companion; "but can't help it, you know."

"When?"

"To-morrow at nine. Monstrous sorry for it--'pon my soul, you really
must look sharp, Fitz, or the thing won't go on much longer."

"Must it be, really?" inquired the other, biting his lips--at that
moment kissing his hand to a very beautiful girl, who slowly passed him
in a coroneted chariot--"must it really be, Joe?" he repeated, turning
towards his companion a pale and bitterly chagrined countenance.

"Poz, 'pon my life. Cage clean, however, and not very full--just at
present"----

"Would not _Wednesday_!"--inquired the other, leaning forward towards
the former speaker's cab, and whispering with an air of intense
earnestness. "The fact is, I've engagements at C----'s on Monday and
Tuesday nights with one or two country cousins, and I _may_ be in a
condition--eh? you understand?"

His companion shook his head distrustfully.

"Upon my word and honor as a gentleman, it's the fact!" said the other,
in a low vehement tone.

"Then--say Wednesday, nine o'clock, A. M. You understand? No mistake,
Fitz!" replied his companion, looking him steadily in the face as he
spoke.

"None--honor!"--After a pause--"Who is it?"

His companion took a slip of paper out of his pocket, and in a whisper
read from it--"Cab, harness, &c., L297, 10s."

"A villain! It's been of only three years' standing," interrupted the
other, in an indignant mutter.

"Between ourselves, he _is_ rather a sharp hand. Then, I'm sorry to say
there's a Detainer or two I have had a hint of"----

The swell uttered an execration which I dare not convey to paper--his
face distorted with an expression of mingled disgust, vexation, and
hatred; and adding, "Wednesday--nine"--drove off, a picture of tranquil
enjoyment.

I need hardly say that _he_ was a fashionable young spendthrift, and the
other a sheriff's officer of the first water--the genteelest _beak_ that
ever was known or heard of--who had been on the look-out for him several
days, and with whom the happy youngster was doomed to spend some
considerable time at a cheerful residence in Chancery Lane, bleeding
gold at every pore the while:--his only chance of avoiding which, was,
as he had truly hinted, an honorable attempt on the purses of two
hospitable country cousins, in the meanwhile, at C----'s! And if he did
not succeed in that enterprise, so that he _must_ go to cage, he lost
the only chance he had for some time of securing an exem