The moment the gentlemen disappeared from view Harold’s resolution was taken.  He was of no use there any longer, as he could see.  It was nearly midnight.  He was very tired and sleepy, and his head was aching terribly.  He could not see the dancing.  He had had nothing to eat; he had stood until his legs were ready to drop off, and to crown all a lunatic had tried to throw him over the banister.

‘I won’t stay here another minute,’ he said.

And leaving the hall by the rear entrance, and slipping down a back stairway, he was soon in the open air, and running swiftly through the park toward the cottage in the lane.

Meanwhile the two brothers had descended to the drawing-room, where Arthur was soon surrounded by his friends and old acquaintances, whom he greeted with that cordiality and friendliness of manner which had made him so popular with those who knew him best.  Every trace of excitement had disappeared, and had he been master of ceremonies himself, at whose bidding the guests were there, he could not have been more gracious or affable.  Even old Peterkin, when he came into notice, was treated with a consideration which put that worthy man at ease, and set his tongue again in motion.  At first he had felt a little overawed by Arthur’s elegant appearance, and had whispered to his neighbor: 

’That’s a swell, and no mistake.  I s’pose that’s what you call foreign get up.  Well, me and ma is goin’ to Europe some time, and hang me if I don’t put on style when I come home.  I’d kind of like to speak to the feller.  I wonder if he remember that I was runnin’ a boat when he went away?’

If Arthur did remember it he showed no sign when Peterkin at last pressed up to him, claiming his attention, as Captain Peterkin, of the ’Liza Ann, the fastest boat on the canal, and by George, the all-tiredest meanest, too, I guess, he said:  ’but them days is past, and the old captain is past with them.  I dabbled a little in ile, and if I do say it, I could about buy up the whole canal if I wanted to; but I ain’t an atom proud, and I don’t forget the old boatin’ days, and I’ve got the old ’Liza Ann hauled up inter my back yard as a relict.  The children use it for a play-house, but to me it is a—­a—­what do you call it? a—­gol darn it, what is it?’

‘Souvenir,’ suggested Arthur, vastly amused at this tirade, which had assumed the form of a speech, and drawn a crowd around him.

’Wall, yes; I s’pose that’s it, though ’taint exactly what I was trying to think of,’ he said.  It’s a reminder, and keeps down my pride, for when I get to feelin’ pretty big, after hearin’ myself pointed out as Peterkin the millionaire, I go out to that old boat in the back yard, and says I, ‘’Liza Ann,’ says I, ’you and me has took many a trip up and down the canal, with about the wust crew, and the wust hosses, and the wust boys that was ever created, and though you’ve got a new coat of paint onto you, and can set still all