A tremendous slap on the shoulder roused me from my dreams. I started up, and there, to my amazement, was Cutts sitting upon the bed with a fresh-lighted cigar in his mouth, puffing as vigorously as an engine. "Good heavens, Cutts!" cried I, "what is the matter? I hope nothing has gone wrong? Where's Mary?" "All right, old fellow," said the Saxon with a mysterious smile. "We've plenty time yet for another glass of brandy and water." "Surely, Cutts, you can't have been making a beast of yourself!" and I seized a candle. There could be no doubt of the fact: he was very fearfully disguised. "That I should have trusted myself in the hands of such a jackass!" was my first exclamation. "Leave the room this moment, sir, or I shall knock you down with a chair; and never let me see your disgusting countenance again." "Did you apply those epi--epitaphs to me, sir?" said the Saxon, with an abortive attempt to look dignified. "You shall hear from me in the morning. This is an ungrateful world--very! I've been doing all I can for him, keeping all the liquor out of the postilions--and that is my reward! I can't help it," continued Cutts, lapsing into a melodramatic reminiscence of the Adelphi--"so I'll just belay my pipe. Bless my dear eyes--how came the salt-water here? Hold hard, old boy,--no snivelling!" and he drew the back of his hand across his eyes, as if he was parting from a messmate upon the eve of execution. "This is intolerable!" I cried. "Get out, sir, or I shall throw you over the window!" "Like to see you try it," said Cutts with a Coriolanus air of defiance. I had just enough command over myself to see that a row with the Saxon was worse than useless, as it would effectually destroy my last remaining chance. I therefore changed my plans. "Mark me, sir. I am going to ring the bell for the waiters, and if you don't choose to relieve me of your presence at once, they shall have my orders to carry you down stairs. Will you go, sir? No! then take the consequences;" and I rang the bell like a demoniac. The music stopped in the room below. Cutts, drunk as he was, observed the circumstance; and no sooner were steps heard upon the stairs, in obedience to the tocsin, than he took his departure with the candle. I lay down again till the tumult should subside, when I intended to apprise Mackinnon of the present state of matters. My appeal to the bell, which was a vigorous one, had produced a marked effect. Several of the company had come to the door of the ball-room, in order to learn the true nature of the alarm; and Cutts on his descent was assailed by vehement enquiries. "Oh, don't ask me--don't ask me!" said the villain, wringing his hands like a male Antigone. "My poor friend! he's just going! Oh, gentlemen, is there no medical man here to save him?" "Doctor Morgan! Doctor Morgan!" shouted twenty voices. "Bless my soul, what's the matter here?" said the doctor, emerging from the ball-room. "Any body taken suddenly ill, eh?"