"Surely some of the servants will stop him!" cried Hyams, rushing to the window. "Yes--here comes one of them. Father Abraham! is it possible? He has knocked Adoniram down!" "Nothing more likely," said I; "his Lordship had lessons from Mendoza." "I must look to this myself," cried Hyams. "Then I'll follow and see fair play," said I. We rushed into the court; but by this time it was empty. The pursued and the pursuer--Daphne and Apollo--had taken flight into the garden. Thither we followed them, Hyams red with ire; but no trace was seen of the fugitives. At last in an acacia bower we heard murmurs. Hyams dashed on; I followed; and there, to my unutterable surprise, I beheld Rogers of ours kneeling at the feet of the Latchley! "Beautiful Lavinia!" he was saying, just as we turned the corner. "Sister Latchley!" cried Hyams, "what is the meaning of all this?" "Rather let me ask, brother Hyams," said the Latchley in unabashed serenity, "what means this intrusion, so foreign to the time, and so subversive of the laws of our society?" "Shall I pound him, Lavinia?" said Rogers, evidently anxious to discharge a slight modicum of the debt which he owed to the Jewish fraternity. "I command--I beseech you, no! Speak, brother Hyams! I again require of you to state why and wherefore you have chosen to violate the fundamental rules of the Agapedome?" "Sister Latchley, you will drive me mad! This young man has not been ten minutes in the house, and yet I find him scampering after you like a tom-cat, and knocking down Adoniram because he came in his way, and you are apparently quite pleased!" "Is the influence of love measured by hours?" asked the Latchley in a tone of deep sentiment. "Count we electricity by time--do we mete out sympathy by the dial? Brother Hyams, were not your intellectual vision obscured by a dull and earthly film, you would know that the passage of the lightning is not more rapid than the flash of kindled love." "That sounds all very fine," said Hyams, "but I shall allow no such doings here; and you, in particular, Sister Latchley, considering how you are situated, ought to be ashamed of yourself!" "Aaron, my man," said Rogers of ours, "will you be good enough to explain what you mean by making such insinuations?" "Stay, my Lord," said I; "I really must interpose. Mr Hyams is about to explain." "May I never discount bill again," cried the Jew, "if this is not enough to make a man forswear the faith of his fathers! Look you here, Miss Latchley; you are part of the establishment, and I expect you to obey orders." "I was not aware, sir, until this moment," said Miss Latchley, loftily, "that I was subject to the orders of any one." "Now, don't be a fool; there's a dear!" said Hyams. "You know well enough what I mean. Haven't you enough on hand with Pettigrew, without encumbering yourself--?" and he stopped short.