He was not, however, permitted to escape thus easily.  He had not taken above twenty steps, when, hearing footsteps behind him, he turned his head to discover Captain Obadiah skipping rapidly after him in a prodigious hurry, swinging his cane and chuckling preposterously to himself, as though in the enjoyment of some most exquisite piece of drollery.  “What!” he cried, as soon as he could catch his breath from his hurry.  “What!  What!  Can’t you answer, you villain?  Why, blind my eyes! a body would think you were a lord’s son indeed, instead of being, as I know you, a beggarly runaway servant whom I took in like a mangy cat out of the rain.  But come, come—­no offence, my boy!  I’ll be no hard master to you.  I’ve heard how the wind blows, and I’ve kept my ears open to all your doings.  I know who is your sweetheart.  Harkee, you rascal!  You have a fancy for my niece, have you?  Well, your apple is ripe if you choose to pick it.  Marry your charmer and be damned; and if you’ll serve me by taking her thus in hand, I’ll pay you twenty pounds upon your wedding-day.  Now what do you say to that, you lousy beggar in borrowed clothes?”

Our young gentleman stopped short and looked his tormentor full in the face.  The thought of his father’s anger alone had saved him from entangling himself in the web of his passions; this he forgot upon the instant.  “Captain Obadiah Belford,” quoth he, “you’re the most consummate villain ever I beheld in all of my life; but if I have the good-fortune to please the young lady, I wish I may die if I don’t serve you in this!”

At these words Captain Obadiah, who appeared to take no offence at his guest’s opinion of his honesty, burst out into a great boisterous laugh, flinging back his head and dropping his lower jaw so preposterously that the setting sun shone straight down his wide and cavernous gullet.

V

HOW THE DEVIL WAS CAST OUT OF THE MEETING-HOUSE

The news that the Honorable Frederick Dunburne, second son of the Earl of Clandennie, was to marry Miss Belinda Belford, the daughter and only child of Colonel William Belford, of New Hope, was of a sort to arouse the keenest and most lively interest in all those parts of the Northern Colonies of America.

The day had been fixed, and all the circumstances arranged with such particularity that an invitation was regarded as the highest honor that could befall the fortunate recipient.  There were to be present on this interesting occasion two Colonial governors and their ladies, an English general, the captain of the flag-ship Achilles, and above a score of Colonial magnates and ladies of distinction.

Captain Obadiah had not been bidden to either the ceremony or the breakfast.  This rebuff he had accepted with prodigious amusement, which, not limiting itself to the immediate occasion, broke forth at intervals for above two weeks.  Now it might express itself in chuckles of the most delicious entertainment, vented as our Captain walked up and down the hall of his great house, smoking his pipe and cracking the knuckles of his fingers; at other times he would burst forth into incontrollable fits of laughter at the extravagant deceit which he believed himself to be imposing upon his brother, Colonel Belford.