Mr. Wilding made him a leg very elegantly. "You are vastly kind, sir,"
said he.

"You have given Mr. Westmacott the fullest satisfaction, and it is
with an increased respect for you - if that were possible - that I
acknowledge it on my friend's behalf."

"You are, sir, a very mirror of the elegancies," said Mr. Wilding, and
Vallancey wondered was he being laughed at. Whether he was or not, he
conceived that he had done the only seemly thing. He had made handsome
acknowledgment of a handsome apology, stung to it by the currishness
of Richard.

And there the matter ended, despite Trenchard's burning eagerness to
carry it himself to a different consummation. Wilding prevailed upon
him, and withdrew him from the field. But as they rode back to Zoyland
Chase the old rake was bitter in his inveighings against Wilding's
folly and weakness.

"I pray Heaven," he kept repeating, "that it may not come to cost you
dear."

"Have done," said Mr. Wilding, a trifle out of patience. "Could I wed
the sister having slain the brother?"

And Trenchard, understanding at last, accounted himself a numskull that
he had not understood before. But he none the less deemed it a pity
Richardhad been spared.