“I reached a pen which stood in the inkstand dish at the bed-side.

“’May I ask what is the amount of the sum for which you are imprisoned?’

“‘I was able,’ he replied, ‘to pay all but five hundred crowns.’

“I wrote a draft on the banker with whom I had a credit from my father for 2,500, and presenting it to the stranger’s wife,

“’You will receive, madam, on presenting this note, a sum more than sufficient for your husband’s discharge; the remainder I leave for his industry to improve.’

“I would have left the room.  Each of them laid hold of one of my hands, the children clung to my coat.  Oh!  Mr. Harley, methinks I feel their gentle violence at this moment; it beats here with delight inexpressible.

“‘Stay, sir,’ said he, ‘I do not mean attempting to thank you’ (he took a pocket-book from under his pillow), ’let me but know what name I shall place here next to Mr. Mountford!’

“‘Sedley.’

“He writ it down.

“‘An Englishman too, I presume.’

“‘He shall go to heaven, notwithstanding;’ said the boy who had been our guide.

“It began to be too much for me.  I squeezed his hand that was clasped in mine, his wife’s I pressed to my lips, and burst from the place, to give vent to the feelings that laboured within me.

“‘Oh, Mountford!’ said I, when he had overtaken me at the door.

“‘It is time,’ replied he, ’that we should think of our appointment; young Respino and his friends are waiting us.’

“‘Damn him, damn him!’ said I.  ’Let us leave Milan instantly; but soft—­I will be calm; Mountford, your pencil.’  I wrote on a slip of paper,

“’To Signor Respino.

“’When you receive this, I am at a distance from Milan.  Accept of my thanks for the civilities I have received from you and your family.  As to the friendship with which you were pleased to honour me, the prison, which I have just left, has exhibited a scene to cancel it for ever.  You may possibly be merry with your companions at my weakness, as I suppose you will term it.  I give you leave for derision.  You may affect a triumph, I shall feel it.

“Edward Sedley.”

“‘You may send this if you will,’ said Mountford, coolly, ’but still Respino is a man of honour; the world will continue to call him so.’

“‘It is probable,’ I answered, ’they may; I envy not the appellation.  If this is the world’s honour, if these men are the guides of its manners—­’

“‘Tut!’ said Mountford, ‘do you eat macaroni—­’”

* * *