“And what said you to that?”
“What could I say? I looked like a fool, and felt like a school-boy under the iron rod of a pedagogue—but I resolved.”
“And what did you resolve, my enterprising KNIGHT errant?”
“You have just heard my proposal to the gentleman who piques himself upon his military prudence.” returned the youth, with bitter irony.
“Yes, and he refused you. What then?”
“True, and what then,” and he nodded his head impatiently.
“You will sleep upon it, my dear fellow, after we have had a glass of the Monongahela, and the pipe. Thus refreshed, you will think better of it in the morning.”
“We will have the Monongahela and the pipe, for truly I feel that I require something to soothe, if not absolutely to exhilarate me; but no sleep for me this night. Elmsley,” he added, more seriously, “you will pass me out of the gate?”
“Pass you out of what?” exclaimed the other, starting from the chair on which he had thrown himself only the moment before. “What do you mean, man?”
“I mean that, as officer of the guard, you alone can pass me through after dark, and this service you must render me.”