"Tour à tour. Admirable! You English are the people for transactions! I must make the acquaintance of your so accommodating friend and neighbour. Is he—how shall I say it?—one of us?" "No. He takes no part in affairs. He cultivates his estate. His call now is merely in way of friendship." "Ah! that is indeed amiable. Parbleu, he has the look! And what is he doing in this country?" Aglionby was growing restive under the cross-examination. He had the air of a witness who fears that he may be enticed into an admission against his will. But he had not the wit to fence with his visitor. "Nothing," he replied curtly. "He comes with his son, that is in the army, and now joins his regiment." "He has a son in the army? My dear friend, certainly you shall present me. I desire of all things to extend my acquaintance among your countrymen—in furtherance, it is understood, of my cause—of our cause, pardon me." "I fear you will find little encouragement with him. He hates your countrymen as one hates a toad." "The amiable man!" Aglionby’s constrained manner had betrayed him to his astute visitor, whose curiosity was now effectually aroused. "Then, my good captain," he continued, "it shall be my pleasing task to convert him. Indeed, you must present me. He shall be a recruit—a little aged, perhaps, but what matters that? In truth, it is an advantage, if his estates are as large as you say." "I did not say his estates were large." "But they march with your family’s—is it not so? And unless I deceive myself, the D’Aglionbys are—how do you say it?—milords of the manor of half the comté of Viltshire. You remark, my dear captain, what a memory I have, even for your barbarous English geography." The captain, more and more restive, fidgeted on his chair. "Parbleu, monsieur," he said doggedly, "you must allow me to be the judge who among my friends is likely to be of use to us. This one, I say, is not; you must be content with that." Polignac, seeing that nothing was to be gained by pressing the matter in the captain’s present mood, adroitly changed the conversation. "Eh bien! As you will, my good captain. You know my zeal in the cause, and Tout fait nombre, as we say in France. Now, my friend, how goes our affair—yours and mine, I mean?" Aglionby’s face cleared. He was now on surer ground. "Admirably, admirably, monsieur. Look you, I have arranged with some six stout fellows—every one to be depended on. Nothing remains but to choose the hour and the place. And besides, I have set Simmons on the watch: he comes here to report at five o’clock." "And it is now half-past two. If it pleases you, mon brave,—there is time—we will have in a bottle of sack and drink success to our enterprise."