up; this is only a shower. They 'll
expect me back to dinner, besides. Confound it, how it does come down!"

"Oh, faith!" said O'Shea, half mournfully, "I don't wonder that you are
less afraid of the rain than a bad dinner."

"No, it's not that,--nothing of the kind," broke in Heathcote,
hurriedly; "at another time I should be delighted! Who ever saw such
rain as that!"

"Look at the river too. See how it is swollen already."

"Ah! I never thought of the mountain torrents," said Heathcote,
suddenly.

"They 'll be coming down like regular cataracts by this time. I defy any
one to cross at Borgo even now. Take my advice, Heathcote, and reconcile
yourself to old Pan's cookery for to-day."

"What time do you dine?"

"What time will suit you? Shall we say four or five?"

"Four, if you'll permit me. Four will do capitally."

"That's all right And now I 'll just step down to Panini myself, and
give him a hint about some Burgundy he has got in the cellar."

Like most men yielding to necessity, Heathcote felt discontented and
irritated, and no sooner was he alone than he began to regret his having
accepted the invitation. What signified a wetting? He was on horseback,
to be sure, but he was well mounted, and it was only twelve miles,--an
hour or an hour and a quarter's sharp canter; and as to the torrents, up
to the girths, perhaps, or a little beyond,--it could scarcely come
to swimming. Thus he argued with himself as he walked to and fro, and
chafed and fretted as he went. It was in this irritated state O'Shea
found him when he came back.

"We 're all right. They 've got a brace of woodcock below stairs,
and some Pistoja mutton; and as I have forbidden oil and all the
grease-pots, we 'll manage to get a morsel to eat."

"I was just thinking how stupid I was to--to--to put you to all this
inconvenience," said he, hastily changing a rudeness into an apology.

"Isn't it a real blessing for me to catch you?" cried O'Shea. "Imagine
me shut up here by myself all day, no one to speak to, nothing to do,
nothing to read but that old volume of the 'Wandering Jew,' that I begin
to know by heart, or, worse again, that speech of mine on the Italian
question, that whenever I 've nearly finished it the villains are sure
to do something or other that destroys all my predictions and ruins my
argument What would have become of me to-day if you had n't dropped in?"

Heathcote apparently did not feel called upon to answer this in