"I must ask you to explain," said he. "Do you mean to turn me out

into the rain? My good man, I suspect the choice is mine."
"The choice is certainly yours," replied the driver; "but when I

tell you all, I believe I know how a gentleman of your figure will
decide. There is a gentlemen's party in this house. I do not know

whether the master be a stranger to London and without
acquaintances of his own; or whether he is a man of odd notions.

But certainly I was hired to kidnap single gentlemen in evening
dress, as many as I pleased, but military officers by preference.

You have simply to go in and say that Mr. Morris invited you."
"Are you Mr. Morris?" inquired the Lieutenant.

"Oh, no," replied the cabman. "Mr. Morris is the person of the
house."

"It is not a common way of collecting guests," said Brackenbury:
"but an eccentric man might very well indulge the whim without any

intention to offend. And suppose that I refuse Mr. Morris's
invitation," he went on, "what then?"

"My orders are to drive you back where I took you from," replied
the man, "and set out to look for others up to midnight. Those who

have no fancy for such an adventure, Mr. Morris said, were not the
guests for him."

These words decided the Lieutenant on the spot.
"After all," he reflected, as he descended from the hansom, "I have

not had long to wait for my adventure."
He had hardly found footing on the side-walk, and was still feeling

in his pocket for the fare, when the cab swung about and drove off
by the way it came at the former break-neck velocity. Brackenbury

shouted after the man, who paid no heed, and continued to drive
away; but the sound of his voice was overheard in the house, the

door was again thrown open, emitting a flood of light upon the
garden, and a servant ran down to meet him holding an umbrella.

"The cabman has been paid," observed the servant in a very civil
tone; and he proceeded to escort Brackenbury along the path and up

the steps. In the hall several other attendants relieved him of
his hat, cane, and paletot, gave him a ticket with a number in

return, and politelyhurried him up a stair adorned with tropical
flowers, to the door of an apartment on the first storey. Here a

grave butler inquired his name, and announcing "Lieutenant
Brackenbury Rich," ushered him into the drawing-room of the house.

A young man, slender and singularly handsome, came forward and
greeted him with an air at once courtly and affectionate. Hundreds

of candles, of the finest wax, lit up a room that was perfumed,
like the staircase, with a profusion of rare and beautiful

flowering shrubs. A side-table was loaded with tempting viands.
Several servants went to and fro with fruits and goblets of

champagne. The company was perhaps sixteen in number, all men, few
beyond the prime of life, and with hardly an exception, of a

dashing and capableexterior. They were divided into two groups,
one about a roulette board, and the other surrounding a table at

which one of their number held a bank of baccarat.
"I see," thought Brackenbury, "I am in a private gambling saloon,

and the cabman was a tout."
His eye had embraced the details, and his mind formed the

conclusion, while his host was still holding him by the hand; and
to him his looks returned from this rapid survey. At a second view

Mr. Morris surprised him still more than on the first. The easy
elegance of his manners, the distinction, amiability, and courage

that appeared upon his features, fitted very ill with the
Lieutenant's preconceptions on the subject of the proprietor of a

hell; and the tone of his conversation seemed to mark him out for a
man of position and merit. Brackenbury found he had an instinctive

liking for his entertainer; and though he chid himself for the
weakness, he was unable to resist a sort of friendly attraction for

Mr. Morris's person and character.
"I have heard of you, Lieutenant Rich," said Mr. Morris, lowering

his tone; "and believe me I am gratified to make your acquaintance.
Your looks accord with the reputation that has preceded you from

India. And if you will forget for a while the irregularity of your
presentation in my house, I shall feel it not only an honour, but a

genuine pleasure besides. A man who makes a mouthful of barbarian
cavaliers," he added with a laugh, "should not be appalled by a

breach of etiquette, however serious."
And he led him towards the sideboard and pressed him to partake of

some refreshment.
"Upon my word," the Lieutenant reflected, "this is one of the

pleasantest fellows and, I do not doubt, one of the most agreeable
societies in London."

He partook of some champagne, which he found excellent; and
observing that many of the company were already smoking, he lit one

of his own Manillas, and strolled up to the roulette board, where
he sometimes made a stake and sometimes looked on smilingly on the

fortune of others. It was while he was thus idling that he became
aware of a sharp scrutiny to which the whole of the guests were

subjected. Mr. Morris went here and there, ostensibly busied on
hospitable concerns; but he had ever a shrewd glance at disposal;

not a man of the party escaped his sudden, searching looks; he took
stock of the bearing of heavy losers, he valued the amount of the

stakes, he paused behind couples who were deep in conversation;
and, in a word, there was hardly a characteristic of any one

present but he seemed to catch and make a note of it. Brackenbury
began to wonder if this were indeed a gambling hell: it had so

much the air of a private inquisition. He followed Mr. Morris in
all his movements; and although the man had a ready smile, he

seemed to perceive, as it were under a mask, a haggard, careworn,
and preoccupied spirit. The fellows around him laughed and made

their game; but Brackenbury had lost interest in the guests.
"This Morris," thought he, "is no idler in the room. Some deep

purpose inspires him; let it be mine to fathom it."
Now and then Mr. Morris would call one of his visitors aside; and

after a brief colloquy in an ante-room, he would return alone, and
the visitors in question reappeared no more. After a certain

number of repetitions, this performance excited Brackenbury's
curiosity to a high degree. He determined to be at the bottom of

this minor mystery at once; and strolling into the ante-room, found
a deep window recess concealed by curtains of the fashionable

green. Here he hurriedly ensconced himself; nor had he to wait
long before the sound of steps and voices drew near him from the

principal apartment. Peering through the division, he saw Mr.
Morris escorting a fat and ruddy personage, with somewhat the look

of a commercial traveller, whom Brackenbury had already remarked
for his coarse laugh and under-bred behaviour at the table. The

pair halted immediately before the window, so that Brackenbury lost
not a word of the following discourse:-

"I beg you a thousand pardons!" began Mr. Morris, with the most
conciliatory manner; "and, if I appear rude, I am sure you will

readily forgive me. In a place so great as London accidents must
continually happen; and the best that we can hope is to remedy them

with as small delay as possible. I will not deny that I fear you
have made a mistake and honoured my poor house by inadvertence;

for, to speak openly, I cannot at all remember your appearance.
Let me put the question without unnecessary circumlocution -

between gentlemen of honour a word will suffice - Under whose roof
do you suppose yourself to be?"

"That of Mr. Morris," replied the other, with a prodigious display
of confusion, which had been visibly growing upon him throughout

the last few words.
"Mr. John or Mr. James Morris?" inquired the host.

"I really cannot tell you," returned the unfortunate guest. "I am
not personally acquainted with the gentleman, any more than I am

with yourself."
"I see," said Mr. Morris. "There is another person of the same