wish to drink a bottle of wine with you in your arbour. Before I go, I

shall introduce myself.'

Will led the way to the trellis, and got a lamp lighted and a bottle

uncorked. He was not altogether unused to such complimentary interviews,

and hoped little enough from this one, being schooled by many

disappointments. A sort of cloud had settled on his wits and prevented

him from remembering the strangeness of the hour. He moved like a person

in his sleep; and it seemed as if the lamp caught fire and the bottle

came uncorked with the facility of thought. Still, he had some curiosity

about the appearance of his visitor, and tried in vain to turn the light

into his face; either he handled the lamp clumsily, or there was a

dimness over his eyes; but he could make out little more than a shadow at

table with him. He stared and stared at this shadow, as he wiped out the

glasses, and began to feel cold and strange about the heart. The silence

weighed upon him, for he could hear nothing now, not even the river, but

the drumming of his own arteries in his ears.

'Here's to you,' said the stranger, roughly.

'Here is my service, sir,' replied Will, sipping his wine, which somehow

tasted oddly.

'I understand you are a very positive fellow,' pursued the stranger.

Will made answer with a smile of some satisfaction and a little nod.

'So am I,' continued the other; 'and it is the delight of my heart to

tramp on people's corns. I will have nobody positive but myself; not

one. I have crossed the whims, in my time, of kings and generals and

great artists. And what would you say,' he went on, 'if I had come up

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