Charlie blushed up all over his emaciated face, as he replied, pulling vehemently at his moustaches, “Why, uncle, it’s best to be explicit, and I like to be straightforward about everything, so I may as well tell you at once, I--I’m hardly prepared to marry--in fact, I’m rather adverse to it--in short,” said Charlie, gaining courage as he went on, “I’ve no immediate idea of marrying at all, and, with all my respect and brotherly affection for her, certainly not Blanche.” “_Certainly not Blanche!_” repeated the General, in something between a shriek and a moan. “_Certainly not Blanche!_--and why, in the name of all that’s de--de--disgusting? _Certainly not Blanche!_ Zounds! I see it all now; you’ve got a _black wife_--don’t deny it!--a black wife and a swarm of piebald picaninnies. Oh dear! oh dear! that I should live to see this day--I shall never get over it--it’s killing me now;----, I feel it here, sir, in the pit of my stomach! I’ll go to bed,” he vociferated, untying his neckcloth on the spot; “I’ll go to bed this instant, and never get up again!” With which lugubrious threat the General, regardless of Charlie’s protestations and remonstrances, did in effect stump furiously off to his den, whence his dressing-room bell was forthwith heard pealing with alarming violence; nor did he appear any more that evening, leaving the gentlemen to drag out a weary sitting, still at cross purposes, each in the society of her he loved best in the world. CHAPTER XXVI “EUDÆMON” NIGHT-WALKERS--A “NICE JOB”--CLEARING THE PLATE-BASKET--JUST IN TIME--DRUM-HEAD COURT-MARTIAL--FIRST LOVE--A RAT BEHIND THE ARRAS--ON THE TRAIL--AN EFFECTUAL OPIATE