mplate a hostile meeting, sir, if I understand you
aright," said Prichard, slowly; "but if you had been kind enough to
hear me out, you 'd have seen that nothing was further from my friend's
thoughts or my own."

"Oh, murther!" groaned Dal ton, as he sank down into a chair.

"We never entertained any such intention."

"No duel?"

"Nothing of the kind."

"Sure, I heard you say satisfaction. I 'll take my oath you said
satisfaction."

"I hope sincerely, sir, that the word may bear a peaceful
signification."

"Oh dear, oh dear!" cried Dalton, as, clasping his hands on his knees,
he sat, a perfect type of disappointed hope, and totally inattentive to
a very eloquent explanation that Prichard was pouring forth.

"You see, now, sir, I trust," cried the latter, triumphantly, "that if
my friend's intentions are not precisely what you looked for, they are
not less inspired by an anxious desire to cultivate your friendship and
obtain your good opinion."

"I wasn't listening to a word you were saying," said Dalton, with a
sincerity that would have made many men smile; but Mr. Prichard never
laughed, or only when the joke was uttered by a silk gown, or the
initiative given by the bench itself.

"I was endeavoring, sir, to convey," said he again, and with infinite
patience, "that, by a clause of the late Mr. Godfrey's will, the
suggestion was made to the effect that, if Sir Stafford Onslow should
deem it fitting and suitable, the testator would not be averse to an
annuity of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per annum
being settled on Mr. Peter Dalton for the term of his life. This clause
has now been brought under Sir Stafford's notice for the first time, as
he never, in fact, saw the will before. The document was lodged in our
hands; and as certain proceedings, of which the letter you have just
acknowledged forms a part, at that period placed you in a peculiar
position of hostility to Sir Stafford, we, as his legal advisers, did
not take any remarkable pains to impress this recommendation on his
memory."

"Go on; I 'm listening to you," said Dalton.

"Well, sir, Sir Stafford is now desirous of complying with this
injunction, the terms of which he reads as more obligatory upon him than
his legal friends would be willing to substantiate. In fact, he makes
the matter a question of feeling and not of law; and this, of course, is
a point wherein we have no right to interpose an opinion. Something like
te