"One can scarcely blame the good lady for that.

Love rarely brooks such permanent ties.

But have you no other lady in your eye ?" "Not for matrimony,--all roads but those to the church!" While this dissolute pair were thus conversing, Clifford, leaning against the wainscot, listened to them with a sick and bitter feeling of degradation, which till of late days had been a stranger to his breast.
He was at length aroused from his silence by Ned, who, bending forward and placing his hand upon Clifford's knee, said abruptly,-- "In short, Captain, you must lead us once more to glory.

We have still our horses, and I keep my mask in my pocketbook, together with my comb.
Let us take the road to-morrow night, dash across the country towards Salisbury, and after a short visit in that neighbourhood to a band of old friends of mine,--bold fellows, who would have stopped the devil himself when he was at work upon Stonehenge,--make a tour by Reading and Henley and end by a plunge into London." "You have spoken well, Ned!" said Tomlinson, approvingly.

"Now, noble captain, your opinion ?" "Messieurs," answered Clifford, "I highly approve of your intended excursion, and I only regret that I cannot be your companion." "Not! and why ?" cried Mr.Pepper, amazed.
"Because I have business here that renders it impossible; perhaps, before long, I may join you in London." "Nay," said Tomlinson, "there is no necessity for our going to London, if you wish to remain here; nor need we at present recur to so desperate an expedient as the road,--a little quiet business at Bath will answer our purpose; and for my part, as you well know, I love exerting my wits in some scheme more worthy of them than the highway,--a profession meeter for a bully than a man of genius.