“But it is so late.”

“But the distance is so short.”

“Do oblige us by staying, Mr. Campbell.”

“My dear Mr. Hay, don’t you see it is impossible, much as I thank you?”

“Well, I am sorry. So will Judy be.”

“And now about the disposition of this—Montgomery?”

“Yes,” sighed Randolph Hay.

“What do you intend to do?”

“I do not know, sir. I want you to tell me, if you please. I might send for a constable to take him to the lockup house, as they call it here; but I do not like to do that. I might send him in a carriage to the village tavern, but I think he would drink himself to death there; or I might give him a bed here for the present, and indeed this is what I would rather do.”

“Eh—what? Keep the fellow here?”