s escaped you
in a moment of haste or anger."

"Offend you!" exclaimed Heathcote, with the air of a man utterly puzzled
and confused,--"offend you! How could I dream of offending you? You were
not used to be touchy, Agincourt; what, in the name of wonder, could
make you fancy I meant offence?"

The look of his face, the very accent in which he spoke, were so
unaffectedly honest and sincere that the youth saw at once how
unconsciously his rude speech had escaped him, and that not a trace of
it remained in his memory.

"I have been so anxious to see you, Charley," said he, in his usual
tone, "for some days back. I wanted to consult you about O'Shea. My
uncle has given me an appointment for him, and I can't find out where he
is. Then there 's another thing; that strange Yankee, Quackinboss,--you
remember him at Marlia, long ago. He found out, by some means, that I
was at the hotel here, and he writes to beg I 'll engage I can't say how
many rooms for himself and some friends who are to arrive this evening.
I don't think you are listening to me, are you?"

"Yes, I hear you,--go on."

"I mean to clear out of the diggin's if these Yankees come, and you must
tell me where to go. I don't dislike the 'Kernal,' but his following
would be awful, eh?"

"Yes, quite so."

"What do you mean by 'Yes'? Is it that you agree with me, or that you
haven't paid the slightest attention to one word I've said?"

"Look here, Agincourt," said Charley, passing his arm inside the
other's, and leading him up and down the room. "I wish I had not changed
my mind; I wish I had gone to India. I have utterly failed in all that
I hoped to have done here, and I have made my poor father more unhappy
than ever."

"Is he so determined to marry this widow, then?"

"She is gone. She left us more than a week ago, without saying why or
for whither. I have not the slightest clew to her conduct, nor can I
guess where she is."

"When was it she left this?"

"On Wednesday week last."

"The very day O'Shea started."

They each looked steadfastly at the other; and at last Agincourt said,--

"Would n't that be a strange solution of the riddle, Charley? On the
last night we dined together you may remember I promised to try what I
could make of the negotiation; and so I praised the widow, extolled her
beauty, and hinted that she was exactly the clever sort of woman that
helps a man on to fortune."

"How I wish I had gone to India!" muttered Charles,