Etherington, very coldly, "I believe
you have the joy of the meeting entirely on your side, as I cannot
remember having seen you before."

"Is not your name Bulmer?" said the clergyman. "I--I know--I am
sometimes apt to make mistakes--But I am sure your name is Bulmer?"

"Not that ever I or my godfathers heard of--my name was Bottom half an
hour ago--perhaps that makes the confusion," answered the Earl, with
very cold and distant politeness;--"Permit me to pass, sir, that I may
attend the lady."

"Quite unnecessary," answered Lady Binks; "I leave you to adjust your
mutual recollections with your new old friend, my lord--he seems to have
something to say." So saying, the lady walked on, not perhaps sorry of
an opportunity to show apparent indifference for his lordship's society
in the presence of one who had surprised them in what might seem a
moment of exuberant intimacy.

"You detain me, sir," said the Earl of Etherington to Mr. Cargill, who,
bewildered and uncertain, still kept himself placed so directly before
the young nobleman, as to make it impossible for him to pass, without
absolutely pushing him to one side. "I must really attend the lady," he
added, making another effort to walk on.

"Young man," said Mr. Cargill, "you cannot disguise yourself from me. I
am sure--my mind assures me, that you are that very Bulmer whom Heaven
hath sent here to prevent crime."

"And you," said Lord Etherington, "whom my mind assures me I never saw
in my life, are sent hither by the devil, I think, to create confusion."

"I beg pardon, sir," said the clergyman, staggered by the calm and
pertinacious denial of the Earl--"I beg pardon if I am in a
mistake--that is, if I am _really_ in a mistake--but I am not--I am
sure I am not!--That look--that smile--I am NOT mistaken. You _are_
Valentine Bulmer--the very Valentine Bulmer whom I--but I will not make
your private affairs any part of this exposition--enough, you _are_
Valentine Bulmer."

"Valentine?--Valentine?" answered Lord Etherington, impatiently,--"I am
neither Valentine nor Orson--I wish you good-morning, sir."

"Stay, sir, stay, I charge you," said the clergyman; "if you are
unwilling to be known yourself, it may be because you have forgotten who
I am--Let me name myself as the Reverend Josiah Cargill, minister of St.
Ronan's."

"If you bear a character so venerable, sir," replied the young
nobleman,--"in which, however, I am not in the least interested,--I
think