"Ay, but it do. Here was I, goen agen the law, diddlen Sir Godfrey and other high justices, cheaten hangman and all—and what for, I axe ’ee? ’Cos Minshull blood was cussed wi’ mixen wi’ Aglionby’s. Aglionby blood had got to pay, someways, and so it did, to be sure, for I took a half-pint or so out of Rafe that mornen." *CHAPTER XVI* *Knaves all Three* Labour Lost—Elegant Extracts—Hard Hit—A New Departure—Fishing—County Families—Sack Captain Aglionby sanded the paper he had just written upon, and leant back in his chair with a sigh of satisfaction. He heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. "Here, Mynheer," said the voice of his landlord. With an instinctive movement he covered the letter, and turned on his chair, in time to see the door open and a visitor enter. He stared for a moment in speechless amazement; then, attempting clumsily to shove the letter entirely out of sight beneath a plate containing the crumbs of a fish pâté, he got up and said: "Why, Mr. Berkeley; adzooks! ’tis the last man I could have expected to see, the last man—though a pleasant surprise, an uncommonly pleasant surprise." "Humph!" grunted the old man, with a glance round the mean room. "I feared you would resent my too abrupt entry. After what I had learnt in your letters about your magnificent, expensive, modish apartment, I could not suppose I was walking straight into your parlour—h’m! study; h’m! bedroom and—pantry, h’m!" "No apologies, my friend, I beg. You take me at a disadvantage, having but just consumed my modest repast——" "Fish! My nose informs me. ’Tis the fortieth smell that has offended my senses within a quarter of an hour. ’Twas somewhat difficult to discover your—mansion. You are not, it appears, so well known at the Hague as you give out; and when I named you at my inn, with your address, I was advised to bring an escort. I came alone——" "Ah! Nicolas Berkeley knows how to take care of himself—eh, Squire?" "But had I known to what an ordeal, to what a series of ordeals, my nostrils would be exposed, I doubt I could not have plucked up the courage." "’Twas ill done to come upon me so suddenly. The smells—hang me, Squire, I have smelt worse when I was the guest of the Czar of Muscovy. But had you given me a week’s, a day’s notice, I would have made ready an entertainment worthy of you, my old friend." "No doubt, no doubt——" "And indeed I was on the point of writing you when you entered." "Ay, on the point of; you write to me twice a day, do you? for unless I mistake, you have already writ once to-day. Under the plate, Captain Aglionby—surely I see writ on the paper there some semblance of my name."