by the young man's magnificent airs; but a tutor is legitimate sport all the world over. "You will go far, my friend," said Eva. "Well, Niklaus, what happened next?” "Oh, then, gracious lady, the landlord got very angry-he has a hot head, has the landlordand he said the old gentleman wanted to swindle him, and that he would want the police himself. And when he found out that your honour's luggage had already gone, he said that neither Johann, nor the horses, nor the luggage, nor the Herr Pastor himself, should stir a foot outside the hotel till the bill was paid. And the pastor had to speak very meek and humble before he could be pacified. And Ludwig said that the chambermaid told him that when she brought him his supper the poor gentleman was weeping." "Oh! oh! oh!" cried Eva; "does not your conscience prick you, you little monster?" "Oh, pooh!" said the Duke; "he will be the first to forgive me. He knows which side his bread is buttered." Then he looked at Eva's dimpling mouth. "I regret nothing," he said. The postilion received a further gratuity, recognized with delight, and folded, his own clothes, and finally departed, hugging them fondly to his breast, apparently inhaling their well-known savour with rapture. XII "La chose fut exquise et fort bien ordonnée. "DOES he not look pretty?" said Eva, stepping back a pace. Rochester had insisted upon rising for the supper-party. And as not all the Doctor's science could find a trace of fever in the pulse, the resolution had been passed that the very scene of the fray should be the scene of the feast. "The friendly juice of the grape shall circle now where the angry blood lay red," said the little Doctor, and laughed genially at his conceit. He had made himself exceedingly smart for the occasion, with his best black suit and silver buckles that glinted again, and a satin stock of the very first quality. But it was not to him that Eva's admiration pointed, nor yet to Neuberg, though this latter looked spruce and handsome and gallant enough. Rochester had kept the little party waiting, and Hans, the orderly, alone had assisted at the mysteries of a toilet that was destined to create a new and splendid impression, to remove an old and sordid one. When at last postilion turned into dandy of the first water-the tardy guest stood upon the threshold and looked in upon them, half shyly, half victoriously, all three were surprised by the graceful apparition and remained staring at him a moment or two in silence. "Does he not look pretty?" cried Eva then. And, indeed, with the slender elegance of hip and thigh set off by the most exacting cut of an English tailor, with knee and ankle gleaming beneath meshes of close-drawn silk, with his wounded arm in its white ruffled shirt-sleeve slung in a purple scarf, the pallor of his invalid state heightening the original refinement of his countenance and throwing into stronger relief the depth of his brown eyes and the pale glory of his hair, the Duke of Rochester was as pretty a specimen of English youth as one could hope to see all the world over. "Come, come!" cried the prima donna; "I am dying of hunger. It is as much as I have been able to do to resist drinking out of the soup-ladle. Doctor, sit you on my right. You, Mr. Postilion, come here to my left, and I will cut your dinner for you so nicely that you will not regret the little accident which deprived you of your right arm. Neuberg, my friend, sit opposite to me, and you can dream that you are doing the honours of my table. Oh, dear, what a good soup!" Even if her three guests had not been already in the best possible frame of mind, it would have been impossible to resist such open-hearted gaiety. The champagne foamed in the beakers, the rims touched with musical ring. "May all affairs of honour be like this one!" cried Eva, and drank. "With your permission," said the Doctor, beaming in the unwonted delight of such company and such entertainment, "with your permission, most fair and gracious lady, one could scarcely wish all honourable encounters to be conducted quite so irregularly, however charming it would be if they could all conclude in this harmony eh? Ah, my lord Duke, if yours be the English fashion of duelling, I trust I may never be called upon to be second again to countryman of yours. Positively, my dear madame, I saw the moment when they both would be cleft upon each other's swords, and that in defiance of any known custom, rule, canon or law of the art!" "Oh, goodness!" interrupted Eva, and tapped the speaker with her knuckles; "be quiet, Doctor! I do not want to hear another word about it. Did I not have enough of it, listening to them carrying on like wild cats over my head? And, O Lord! what I endured when, all of a sudden, everything was quiet as the grave. And none of you would have the politeness to answer me, or let me in. No, Neuberg, not another word about it all's well that ends well: that is enough. Here, give me that salad, and I will toss it. Fill your enemy's glass, if the Doctor will allow." "Moderation, moderation," said the Doctor. "Na, I do not hold with such of my colleagues as recommend low feeding after loss of blood. Nature must be stimulated, but 66 "Then let us stimulate her by all means," said Eva. "A slice of ham for the patient, for tomorrow I carry him off, bones and baggage." Her face radiated joy. Neuberg smiled at her, in curious sympathy with those very feelings which made his misfortune. "Nay, but," said the man of medicine, "the wound must be looked to for many days yet." "And it shall be looked to," said the lady. "We have a doctor for him, a doctor as good as you-and give him higher praise," she added, |