he was insatiably loquacious; and as he continued a palaver I watched the insipid youths gather again about my idol, and cursed my fate and my host. He remembered suddenly that I was to attend the Assembly Ball on Thursday, and had only attended to-night by way of a preparative. This put it into his head to present me to another young lady; but I managed this interview with so much art that, while I was scrupulously polite and even cordial to the fair one, I contrived to keep Robbie beside me all the time and to leave along with him when the ordeal was over. We were just walking away arm in arm, when I spied my friend the Major approaching, stiff as a ramrod and, as usual, obtrusively clean.
"O! there's a man I want to know," said I, taking the bull by the horns. "Won't you introduce me to Major Chevenix?"
"At a word, my dear fellow," said Robbie; and "Major!" he cried, "come here and let me present to you my friend Mr. Ducie, who desires the honour of your acquaintance."
The Major flushed visibly, but otherwise preserved his composure. He bowed very low. "I'm not very sure," he said: "I have an idea we have met before?"
"Informally," I said, returning his bow; "and I have long looked forward to the pleasure of regularising our acquaintance."
"You are very good, Mr. Ducie," he returned. "Perhaps you could aid my memory a little? Where was it that I had the pleasure?"
"O, that would be telling tales out of school," said I, with a laugh, "and before my lawyer, too!"
"I'll wager," broke in Mr. Robbie, "that, when you knew my client, Chevenix, the past of our friend Mr. Ducie is an obscure chapter full of horrid secrets. I'll
