out the Captain in a fury.

"I saw him, but I could not have speech with him, Captain," said Mr.
Garbetts.

"And why the devil not?" asked the other.

"There was one there I cared not to meet, nor would you," the tragedian
answered in a sepulchral voice. "The minion Tatham was there, Captain."

"The cowardly scoundthrel!" roared Costigan. "He's frightened, and
already going to swear the peace against me."

"I'll have nothing to do with the fighting, mark that," the tragedian
doggedly said, "and I wish I'd not seen Tatham neither, nor that bit
of----"

"Hold your tongue, Bob Acres. It's my belief ye're no better than a
coward," said Captain Costigan, quoting Sir Lucius O'Trigger, which
character he had performed with credit, both off and on the stage, and
after some more parley between the couple they separated in not very good
humour.

Their colloquy has been here condensed, as the reader knows the main
point upon which it turned. But the latter will now see how it is
impossible to give a correct account of the letter which the Captain
wrote to Major Pendennis, as it was never opened at all by that
gentleman.

When Miss Costigan came home from rehearsal, which she did in the company