nt of honour, not forget a man's name.
Rippenger, your schoolmaster?  Mr. Rippenger, you've knocked some
knowledge into this young gentleman.'  Temple and I took counsel together
hastily; we cried in a breath: ' Here 's to Julia Rippenger, the
prettiest, nicest girl living!' and we drank to her.

'Julia!' the captain echoed us.  'I join your toast, gentlemen.  Mr.
Richmond, Mr. Tempus-Julia!  By all that's holy, she floats a sinking
ship!  Julia consoles me for the fairest, cruellest woman alive.
A  rough sailor, Julia!  at your feet.'

The captain fell commendably forward.  Squire Gregory had already
dropped.  Temple and I tried to meet, but did not accomplish it till next
morning at breakfast.  A couple of footmen carried us each upstairs in
turn, as if they were removing furniture.

Out of this strange evening came my discovery of my father, and the
captain's winning of a wife.




CHAPTER X

AN EXPEDITION

I wondered audibly where the Bench was when Temple and I sat together
alone at Squire Gregory's breakfast-table next morning, very thirsty for
tea.  He said it was a place in London, but did not add the sort of
place, only that I should soon be coming to London with him; and I
remarked, 'Shall I?' and smiled at him, as if in a fit of careless
affection.  Then he talked runningly of the theatres and pantomimes and
London's charms.

The fear I had of this Bench made me passingly conscious of Temple's
delicacy in not repeating its name, though why I feared it there was
nothing to tell me.  I must have dreamed of it just before waking,
and I burned for reasonable information concerning it.  Temple respected
my father too much to speak out the extent of his knowledge on the
subject, so we drank our tea with the grandeur of London for our theme,
where, Temple assured me, you never had a headache after a carouse
overnight: a communication that led me to think the country a far less
favourable place of abode for gentlemen.  We quitted the house without
seeing our host or the captain, and greatly admired by the foot