ton, angrily. "You're a-beggin' the whole
question, stranger; so jest keep these arguments for the meetin'."

"Meeting! I will attend no meeting! Whatever be your local ways and
habits, you have no right to impose them upon a stranger. I am not one
of you; I will not be one of you."

"That's more of the same sort of reasonin'; but you 'll be chastised,
Britisher, see if you ain't!"

"Let me have some sort of conveyance, or, if need be, a horse. I will
leave this at once. Any expenses I have incurred I am ready to pay. You
hear me?"

"Yes, I hear you, but that ain't enough. You 're bound by them bills, as
you 'll see stickin' up all through the town, to appear this evening and
deliver a lecture before the people of this city--"

"One word for all, I 'll not do it."

"And do you tell me, sir, that when our folk is a-gath-erin' about the
assembly rooms, that they 're to be told to go home ag'in; that the
Britisher has changed his mind, and feels someways as if he didn't like
it?"

"That may be as it can; my determination is fixed. You may lecture
yourself; or you can, perhaps, induce your friend--I forget his name--to
favor the company."

"Well, sir, if old Poll's strength was equal to it, the public would n't
have to regret _you_. It ain't one of _your_ stamp could replace _him_,
that I tell you."

A sudden thought here flashed across Layton's mind, and he hastened to
profit by it.

"Why not ask him to take my place? I am ready, most ready, to requite
his services. Tell him, if you like, that I will pay all the expenses
of the evening, and leave him the receipts. Or say, if he prefer, that
I will give him thirty, forty, ay, fifty dollars, if he will relieve me
from an engagement I have no mind for."

"Well, that does sound a bit reasonable," said the other, slowly;
"though, mayhap, he 'll not think the terms so high. You would n't say
eighty, or a hundred, would you? He 's proud, old Poll, and it's best
not to offend him by a mean offer."

Layton bit his lip impatiently, and walked up and down the room without
speaking.

"Not to say," resumed Heron, "that he's jest out of a sick-bed;
the exertion might give him a relapse. The contingencies is to be
calc'lated, as they say on the railroads."

"If it be only a question between fifty and eighty--"

"That's it,--well spoken. Well, call it a hundred, and I'm off to see if
it can't be done." And without waiting for a reply, Heron hastened out
of the room as