"I wonder who he was," observed Mr. Oldstone. "His sudden appearance was most remarkable; his disappearance no less so."
In the middle of this discussion, the door opened, and our host entered with a letter, which he handed to the antiquary, who mechanically put it in his pocket as of no immediate importance, without even looking at the handwriting, while he joined in the merry banter of the other members, who, as soon as our landlord made his appearance fixed upon him at once as the butt of their satire.
"Hullo, Jack!" cried one, "got over your little nap at last, eh?"
"That last glass of your home-brewed ale, by way of a night cap was most effectual," jeered another.
Our host, however, did not view the matter by any means in the light of a joke, and answered savagely, "Ah! the dastardly cowards! They did me at last. Can't make out how they found time to do it. Such a trick was never played me before, and I'll take jolly good care they don't catch me again."
"Well, that's not likely under the circumstances, is it, Jack?" replied Mr. Hardcase.
"Just like these lawyer fellows," observed Professor Cyanite, "they are always tripping one up."
"Nor yet anyone else," persisted the landlord. Then added, "To think that my daughter who has been brought up from a kid under my very eyes, and never seen no one save her parents and you gentlemen of the club, who have always treated her with courtesy as though she were a high born lady—she, what's never heard a word in her life as she didn't oughter have heard—what never knowed nothink of the ways of this wicked world—that she, poor child, should be subjected to outrage from two ruffianly bullies—one o' them a peer of the realm, forsooth, and all on account of her picter being exhibited at that d——d Royal Academy!" He concluded with a thump of his fist on the breakfast table that set all the cups and saucers rattling, and felt better afterwards.
"Yes, it was a narrow shave. Wasn't it, Jack?" remarked Parnassus. "If it hadn't been for that stranger——"
"Ah! I'ld like to find out who he was. That I would. Can any of you gentlemen guess?" demanded our host.