open to you.«
    »Sir,« said Mr. Arthur Rhodes, »permit me to defer to your many superior
titles to that distinction.«
    »The honour, sir, lies rather in the bestowing than in the taking.«
    »I venture to think, sir, that though I cannot speak pure Castilian, I
require no lesson from a Grandee of Spain in acknowledging the dues of my
betters.«
    »I will avow myself conquered, sir, by your overpowering condescension,«
said Mr. Sullivan Smith; »and I entreat you to ascribe my acceptance of your
brief retirement to the urgent character of the business I have at heart.«
    He laid his fingers on the panting spot, and bowed.
    Mr. Arthur Rhodes, likewise bowing, deferentially fell to rearward.
    »If I mistake not,« said the Irish gentleman, »I am indebted to Mr. Rhodes;
and we have been joint participators in the hospitality of Mrs. Warwick's
table.«
    The English gentleman replied: »It was there that I first had the pleasure
of an acquaintance which is graven on my memory, as the words of the wise king
on tablets of gold and silver.«
    Mr. Sullivan Smith gravely smiled at the unwonted match he had found in
ceremonious humour, in Saxonland, and saying: »I shall not long detain you, Mr.
Rhodes,« he passed through the doorway.
    Arthur waited for him, pacing up and down, for a quarter of an hour, when a
totally different man reappeared in the same person, and was the Sullivan Smith
of the rosy beaming features and princely heartiness. He was accosted: »Now, my
dear boy, it 's your turn to try if you have a chance, and good luck go with ye.
I 've said what I could on your behalf, for you 're one of ten thousand in this
country, you are.«
    Mr. Sullivan Smith had solemnified himself to proffer a sober petition
within the walls of the newly widowed lady's house; namely, for nothing less
than that sweet lady's now unfettered hand: and it had therefore been perfectly
natural to him, until his performance ended with the destruction of his hopes,
to deliver himself in the high Castilian manner. Quite unexpected, however, was
the reciprocal loftiness of tone spontaneously adopted by the young English
squire, for whom, in consequence, he conceived a cordial relish; and as he paced
in the footsteps of Arthur, anxious to quiet his curiosity by hearing how it had
fared with one whom he had