Agincourt was a fine, true-hearted, generous young fellow,--manly
and straightforward,--but he had imbibed his share of this tendency. He
fancied himself subtle, and imagined that a nice negotiation could not
be intrusted to better hands. Besides this, he was eager to impress
Heath-cote with a high opinion of his skill, and show that even a
regular man of the world like O'Shea was not near a match for him.

"I 'm not going to drink that light claret such an evening as this,"
said O'Shea, pushing away his just-tasted glass. "Let us have something
a shade warmer."

"Ring the bell, and order what you like."

"Here, this will do,--'Clos Vougeot,'" said O'Shea, pointing out to the
waiter the name on the wine carte."

"And if that be a failure, I 'll fall back on brandy-and-water, the
refuge of a man after bad wine, just as disappointed young ladies take
to a convent. If you can drink that little tipple, Agincourt, you 're
right to do it. You 'll come to Burgundy at forty, and to rough port ten
years later; but you 've a wide margin left before that. How old are
you?"

"I shall be seventeen my next birthday," said the other, flushing, and
not wishing to add that there were eleven months and eight days to run
before that event should come off.

"That's a mighty pretty time of life. It gives you a clear four years
for irresponsible follies before you come of age. Then you may fairly
count upon three or four more for legitimate wastefulness, and with a
little, very little, discretion, you never need know a Jew till you're
six-and-twenty."

"I beg your pardon, my good fellow," said the other, coloring, half
angrily; "I've had plenty to do with those gents already. Ask Nathan
whether he has n't whole sheafs of my bills. My guardian only allows me
twelve hundred a year,--a downright shame they call it in the regiment,
and so I wrote him word. In fact, I told him what our Major said, that
with such means as mine I ought to try and manage an exchange into the
Cape Rifles."

"Or a black regiment in the West Indies," chimed in O'Shea, gravely.

"No, confound it, he did n't say that!"

"The Irish Constabulary, too, is a cheap corps. You might stand that."

"I don't mean to try either," said the youth, angrily.

"And what does Nathan charge you?--say for a 'thing' at three months?"

"That all depends upon the state of the money-market," said Agincourt,
with a look of profoundest meaning. "It is entirely a question of the