"Why, you're a fool, Cherry. I thought you would have hit upon some plan to enable me to secure the prize."
"Well then—thuppothing we carwy the girl off, to Wochethter for inthanth."
"Deuce take Rochester! my regiment is quartered at Chatham."
"Well—to Canterbury then?"
"Yes—that will do—strike me blind if it won't!" ejaculated the captain. "But if I could only get rid of this Markham somehow or another, I should prefer it. The fellow——"
Captain Smilax Dapper stopped short: for at that moment, as he and his companion were turning the angle of a summer-house, they ran against Richard Markham.
"It wath'nt me—it wath'nt me who thpoke!" ejaculated Sir Cherry Bounce; and having uttered these words, he very fairly took to his heels, leaving his friend the captain to settle matters as best he might.
"Who was taking a most unwarrantable liberty with my name?" demanded Richard, walking straight up to Captain Smilax Dapper.
"I certainly made an observation," answered the captain, turning mighty pale, "and I do not hesitate to say, sir——"
"What, sir?"