d, Peter, been a native of any other
country, I flatter myself I should have known how to make my advances;
but with these dear Irish their very accessibility is a difficulty of no
common order. Assume an air of deference and respect, and they 'll
set you down for a cold formalist, with whom they can have nothing in
common. Try the opposite line, and affect the free and easy, and the
chances are that you have a duel to fight before you know you have
offended. I confess that I have made several small advances, and thrown
out repeated little hints about loneliness, and long evenings, and so
forth; and although he has concurred with me in every word, yet his
practice has never followed his precept. But I don't despair. What say
you, if we attack the fortress as allies? I have a notion we should
succeed?" "With all my heart. What's your plan?" "At this moment I
have formed none, nor is there need of any. Let us go out, like the
knight-errants of old, in search of adventures, and see if they will not
befall us. The first step will be to make Dalton's acquaintance. Now, he
always takes his walk in bad weather in the great Saal below; should he
not make his appearance there to-day, as he has already absented himself
for some days, I 'll call to inquire after him at his own house. You 'll
accompany me. The rest we 'll leave to fortune."

Although On slow could not see that this step could lead to anything
beyond a civil reply to a civil demand, he assented readily, and
promised to meet his companion at four o'clock the same evening. As for
Jekyl, he took a very different view of the whole transaction, for
he knew that while to him there might be considerable difficulty in
establishing any footing with the Daltons, the son of the wealthy
baronet would be, in all likelihood, very differently looked on. In
presenting him, thought he, I shall have become the friend of the family
at once. It had often before been his fortune in life to have made
valuable acquaintances in this manner; and although the poor Daltons
were very unlikely to figure in the category of profitable friends,
they would at least afford an agreeable resource against the dulness of
wintry evenings, and prevent what he himself called the "demoralization"
of absence from female society. Lastly, the scheme promised to establish
a close intimacy between Onslow and himself; and here was a benefit
worth all the others.

CHAPTER XIII. A SUSPICIOUS VISITOR

How f