Now, the man was an honest countryman, and, unspoiled by any taint of socialism, he still entertained a hearty respect for his betters, and "a gentleman down on his luck" was in his eyes an object for reverential sympathy. He had taken in the bare, mean vulgarity of the room in which its occupant looked so sadly out of place--and his natural shrewdness told him that the other would not have parted with the dog save under the direst stress of circumstances. So he stammered, and looked nervous, as he tried to refuse the proffered gratuity in a suitable manner. "Thankee kindly, sir. But master, he don't let none of us take anything from gentlemen, except when they's down for the shootin'," answers the man, hitting upon the only excuse he could invent. "But it's thank ye kindly, sir, all the same, and I'll take downright good care of the dog. Good-evenin', sir." The now sole occupant of the room feels desolate and lonely indeed. There is Roy's pan of water, and the few crumbs remaining from the dog-biscuits Roy had for his dinner. How silent and intolerable the room feels without him. His last friend! And now a resolve takes root in his mind, a wild and desperate resolve, and it was partly with this idea that he brought himself to accept a price for Roy. Even now he had better dismiss it, and accept the situation, and hasten on towards oblivion. It is not too late. Nebuchadnezzar, we read, was transformed into a beast of the field. There comes a time, or times, in most men's lives when they undergo a similar metamorphosis. Such a time had come to Roland Dorrien. He was transformed into--an ass. Nature, however, was willing to do her best for him, by upsetting, if possible, his wise resolve above referred to. When he tried to rise the following morning, his head was throbbing with an agonising pain, and his consciousness only permitted him to realise one fact--that to move from his bed that day would be a stark impossibility. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. TWO MEETINGS. For three days Roland lay in his shabby lodgings, too ill to stir from his bed; and but for the consciousness that, if he would accomplish his purpose, he must rouse himself, and determine to rally, the probability is that he would never have risen from it at all. The effort must be made. His vitality, sadly impaired by a long course of semi-starvation, must be restored by the contrary treatment. He was not going to die in any such squalid hole as this, among the dirty and repellant semblances of humanity, who, under the circumstances, grudgingly ministered to his wants. Not he. He would get up; try whether the air would set him on his legs again, and if so, would certainly carry out his plan the very next day. His funds, considerably replenished by the price of parting with his last, faithful friend, would enable him to do this, only it must be done at once, and then-- afterwards! Well, he had a plan.