"It seems there has been an error.

I am deeply grieved, believe me--" "Say no more, I beg," cried Garnache, immensely relieved that at last there should be a conclusion to an affair which had threatened to be interminable.

"Let me but express my regrets for the treatment you received at my hands." "I accept your expressions, and I admire their generosity," returned the other as courteous now as subservient, indeed, in his courtesy--as he had been erstwhile fierce and intractable.

"As for the treatment I received, I confess that my mistake and my opinionativeness deserved it me.

I deplore to deprive these gentlemen of the entertainment to which they were looking forward, but unless you should prove of an excessive amiability I am afraid they must suffer with me the consequences of my error." Garnache assured him very briefly, and none too politely that he did not intend to prove of any excessive amiability.