Hudson could stand it no longer.--"I'll tell you what, my dear Listado, I have my sister's, Miss Helen Hudson's, commands, that nothing more be done in this matter; and farther, that so far from Mr Brail having affronted her, he really paid her the most profound compliment that a gentleman can pay to a lady." "As how, so please you?" quoth Listado, with a most vinegar grin, although deucedly puzzled at the same time; "a lady don't weep at a compliment usually." "In plain English, then, Laurence, Mr Brail had just, as you entered, asked my sister to--_to marry him_." Listado's face altered--his jaw fell--"_Marry him_! I thought so; why, this is worse and worse. Now, I will pink him, by Jupiter! Marry _him_, indeed! While Laurence Listado lives she shall be _compelled_ to do no such thing. I am a man of some fortune, and, as you all know, I am desperately in love with her myself; so fix time and place, and damn the hour of breakfast now entirely. I will shoot him--any time--now--across that table. Oh Brail! you incomparable hyp"---- "Hush! hush!" said Hudson, clapping his hand on Listado's mouth; "hush! he has not only had the insolence to ask her to marry him--[here Listado clenched his hand, bit his lip, and gave three or four tremendous strides to the other end of the room]--not only has he asked her to marry him, but--_but he has been accepted_!" Poor Laurence faced right round. "Say so again, and----Poo, Hudson, you are jesting with me; but here comes Mrs Hudson. Madam, has Mr Brail had the audacity to ask your daughter in marriage? And has she had the egregious folly to accept him in preference to your servant, and her humble admirer, Laurence Listado?" Mrs Hudson looked at me, and then at her son, and then at me again--as much as to say--"very indelicate conduct this, on _your part_, at any rate"--at length, "Mr Brail, I am thunderstruck--how came my daughter to have been made the subject of a brawl?--was this"---- "My dear mother," chimed in her son--"it is all a mistake--Brail is not to blame, and no more is Listado--say, has Helen Hudson accepted Brail, or has she not?" "She certainly has accepted him--_on conditions_." Listado's eyes, during this colloquy, were riveted on Mrs Hudson's face. When she uttered these words, he slowly turned them on me, and while the tears hopped over his cheek, he advanced, and took my hand. "Brail, I wish you joy--from my soul, I do--even although I--curse it, never mind--but, man, could you not take Sophie Duquesné?--yet--even at the eleventh hour, Benjamin?--it would mightily oblige me, do you know." I smiled. "Well, well, I have been a fool; and I have ill-used you, Brail, but I am sorry for it--so, God bless you, my dear boy--you are a fortunate fellow"--and thereupon, he ran out of the room, without saying good-by to any one.