"Oh! and so the young woman knew you were coming to town?"

"Yes, sir; Mr. Trevanion told me, some days ago, the day I should have
to start."

"And what do you and the young woman propose doing to-morrow if there is
no change of plan?"

Here I certainly thought there was a slight, scarce perceptible,
alteration in Mr. Peacock's countenance; but he answered readily, "To-
morrow, a little assignation, if we can both get out,--

"`Woo me, now I am in a holiday humor,
And like enough to consent'

"Swan again, sir."

"Humph! so then Mr. Gower and Mr. Vivian are the same person?"

Peacock hesitated. "That's not my secret, sir; 'I am combined by a
sacred vow.' You are too much the gentleman to peep through the blanket
of the dark and to ask me, who wear the whips and stripes--I mean the
plush small-clothes and shoulder-knots--the secrets of another gent to
whom 'my services are bound.'"

How a man past thirty foils a man scarcely twenty! What superiority the
mere fact of living-on gives to the dullest dog! I bit my lip and was
silent.