"I dare say not! strike me, if I didn't keep it so precious snug and quiet! However I love the girl; and curse me if I don't have her too--that's more! She shall be Mrs. Smilax Dapper, as sure as she's born, and I hope the mother of a whole regiment of little Smilaxes. And then Cherry, you shall stay a month or six weeks with us at a time, and fondle the little ones on your knees, you shall, and every thing will go on comfortable and smooth." "Oh! veway thmooth!" cried Sir Cherry Bounce, making a slight grimace at the pleasing prospect of fondling the Little Dappers upon his knees. "And I suppose I am not presumptuous in aspiring to the hand of Isabella? My father is a peer--and my uncle is a peer--and I have three thousand a-year of my own, beside expectations. Strike me, if I'm a man to be sneezed at!" "Who thinkth of thneething at you?" "I don't know exactly. And then I am not such a very bad looking fellow either. You are not ugly, Cherry, you are not--that is, not particularly ugly, although you have got pink eyes, and white lashes, and a pug nose;--but I'm more athletic, strike me!" "I'm thure I don't dithpute what you thay." "Well then--acknowledging all this," proceeded the captain, "how should I treat a fellow who endeavours to cut me out?" "Thallenge him to fight with thword and pithtol," answered Sir Cherry. "But who ith he?" "That upstart fellow, Markham, who was brought here by that odious, republican, seditious, disloyal scoundrel Armstrong, and who talks all day about poetry and music, and God knows what. However, I can't say I admire that plan of yours," continued the hussar; "swords and pistols, you know are so very dangerous; and--and--" "And what elth?" "Why, you're a fool, Cherry. I thought you would have hit upon some plan to enable me to secure the prize." "Well then--thuppothing we carwy the girl off, to Wochethter for inthanth." "Deuce take Rochester! my regiment is quartered at Chatham." "Well--to Canterbury then?" "Yes--that will do--strike me blind if it won't!" ejaculated the captain. "But if I could only get rid of this Markham somehow or another, I should prefer it. The fellow----" Captain Smilax Dapper stopped short: for at that moment, as he and his companion were turning the angle of a summer-house, they ran against Richard Markham. "It wath'nt me--it wath'nt me who thpoke!" ejaculated Sir Cherry Bounce; and having uttered these words, he very fairly took to his heels, leaving his friend the captain to settle matters as best he might. "Who was taking a most unwarrantable liberty with my name?" demanded Richard, walking straight up to Captain Smilax Dapper. "I certainly made an observation," answered the captain, turning mighty pale, "and I do not hesitate to say, sir----" "What, sir?" "Why, sir--that I feel, sir--that strike me, sir!"