‘No, indeed, sir, you may well say that! Outrageous! And my ascension announced for Friday, you know!’ cried the aeronaut. ‘A pretty scandal! Byfield the aeronaut at the police-court! Tut-tut! Will you be able to get your rascal home, sir? Allow me to offer you my card. I am staying at Walker and Poole’s Hotel, sir, where I should be pleased to see you.’ ‘The pleasure would be mutual, sir,’ said I, but I must say my heart was not in my words, and as I watched Mr. Byfield departing I desired nothing less than to pursue the acquaintance One more ordeal remained for me to pass. I carried my senseless load upstairs to our lodging, and was admitted by the landlady in a tall white nightcap and with an expression singularly grim. She lighted us into the sitting-room; where, when I had seated Rowley in a chair, she dropped me a cast-iron courtesy. I smelt gunpowder on the woman. Her voice, tottered with emotion. ‘I give ye nottice, Mr. Ducie,’ said she. ‘Dacent folks’ houses . . .’ And at that apparently temper cut off her utterance, and she took herself off without more words. I looked about me at the room, the goggling Rowley, the extinguished fire; my mind reviewed the laughable incidents of the day and night; and I laughed out loud to myself—lonely and cheerless laughter!....... * * * * * [_At this point the Author’s_ MS. _breaks off_] Footnotes {0} This Project Gutenberg eText does not include the extra chapters.