“Dear Algy, Stop it.  I’m back, and have to see
my father.  I may be down about two, or three, or four,
in the morning.  No key; so, keep in.  I want to see
you.  My whole life is changed.  I must see her.  Did
you get my telegram?  Answer, by messenger; I shall
come to you the moment my father has finished his
lecture. 
“Yours,
“E.B.”

Algernon told Sedgett to wait while he dressed in evening uniform, and gave him a cigar to smoke.

He wrote:—­

“Dear Ned, Stop what?  Of course, I suppose there’s only one thing, and how can I stop it?  What for?  You ridiculous old boy!  What a changeable old fellow you are!—­Off, to see what I can do.  After eleven o’clock to-morrow, you’ll feel comfortable.—­If the Governor is sweet, speak a word for the Old Brown; and bring two dozen in a cab, if you can.  There’s no encouragement to keep at home in this place.  Put that to him.  I, in your place, could do it.  Tell him it’s a matter of markets.  If I get better wine at hotels, I go to hotels, and I spend twice—­ten times the money.  And say, we intend to make the laundress cook our dinners in chambers, as a rule.  Old B. an inducement.

“Yours aff. 
“A.B.”

This epistle he dispatched by the footman, and groaned to think that if, perchance, the Old Brown Sherry should come, he would, in all probability, barely drink more than half-a-dozen bottles of that prime vintage.  He and Sedgett, soon after, were driving down to Dahlia’s poor lodgings in the West.  On the way, an idea struck him: 

Would not Sedgett be a noisier claimant for the thousand than Edward?  If he obeyed Edward’s direction and stopped the marriage, he could hand back a goodly number of hundreds, and leave it to be supposed that he had advanced the remainder to Sedgett.  How to do it?  Sedgett happened to say:  “If you won’t hand the money now, I must have it when I’ve married her.  Swear you’ll be in the vestry when we’re signing.  I know all about marriages.  You swear, or I tell you, if I find I’m cheated, I will throw the young woman over slap.”

Algernon nodded:  “I shall be there,” he said, and thought that he certainly would not.  The thought cleared an oppression in his head, though it obscured the pretty prospect of a colonial but and horse, with Rhoda cooking for him, far from cares.  He did his best to resolve that he would stop the business, if he could.  But, if it is permitted to the fool to create entanglements and set calamity in motion, to arrest its course is the last thing the Gods allow of his doing.

CHAPTER XXXIV