the young woman won't marry a livery servant,--proud creature!--very proud! and Mr. Gower, you see, knowing how it was, felt for me, and told her, if I may take such liberty with the Swan, that she should-- "'Never lie by Johnson's side With an unquiet soul,' for that he would get me a place in the Stamps! The silly girl said she would have it in black and white,--as if Mr. Gower would write to her! "And now, sir," continued Mr. Peacock, with a simpler gravity, "you are at liberty, of course, to say what you please to my lady; but I hope you'll not try to take the bread out of my mouth because I wear a livery and am fool enough to be in love with a waiting-woman,--I, sir, who could have married ladies who have played the first parts in life--on the metropolitan stage." I had nothing to say to these representations, they seemed plausible; and though at first I had suspected that the man had only resorted to the buffoonery of his quotations in order to gain time for invention or to divert my notice from any flaw in his narrative, yet at the close, as the narrative seemed probable, so I was willing to believe the buffoonery was merely characteristic. I contented myself, therefore, with asking, "Where do you come from now?" "From Mr. Trevanion, in the country, with letters to Lady Ellinor." "Oh! and so the young woman knew you were coming to town?" "Yes, sir; Mr. Trevanion told me, some days ago, the day I should have to start." "And what do you and the young woman propose doing to-morrow if there is no change of plan?" Here I certainly thought there was a slight, scarce perceptible, alteration in Mr. Peacock's countenance; but he answered readily, "To- morrow, a little assignation, if we can both get out,-- "`Woo me, now I am in a holiday humor, And like enough to consent' "Swan again, sir." "Humph! so then Mr. Gower and Mr. Vivian are the same person?" Peacock hesitated. "That's not my secret, sir; 'I am combined by a sacred vow.' You are too much the gentleman to peep through the blanket of the dark and to ask me, who wear the whips and stripes--I mean the plush small-clothes and shoulder-knots--the secrets of another gent to whom 'my services are bound.'" How a man past thirty foils a man scarcely twenty! What superiority the mere fact of living-on gives to the dullest dog! I bit my lip and was silent. "And," pursued Mr. Peacock, "if you knew how the Mr. Vivian you inquired after loves you! When I told him, incidentally, how a young gentleman had come behind the scenes to inquire after him, he made me describe you, and then said, quite mournfully, 'If ever I sin what I hope to become, how happy I shall be to shake that kind hand once more,'--very words, sir, honor bright! "'I think there's ne'er a man in Christendom Can lesser hide his hate or love than he.'"