"I always said the old buffer would marry," he muttered, after about
half an hour's revery. Alicia and my lady, the stepmother, will go at it
hammer and tongs. I hope they won't quarrel in the hunting season, or
say unpleasant things to each other at the dinner-table; rows always
upset a man's digestion.

At about twelve o'clock on the morning following that night upon which
the events recorded in my last chapter had taken place, the baronet's
nephew strolled out of the Temple, Blackfriarsward, on his way to the
city. He had in an evil hour obliged some necessitous friend by putting
the ancient name of Audley across a bill of accommodation, which bill
not having been provided for by the drawer, Robert was called upon to
pay. For this purpose he sauntered up Ludgate Hill, with his blue
necktie fluttering in the hot August air, and thence to a refreshingly
cool banking-house in a shady court out of St. Paul's churchyard, where
be made arrangements for selling out a couple of hundred pounds' worth
of consols.

He had transacted this business, and was loitering at the corner of the
court, waiting for a chance hansom to convey him back to the Temple,
when he was almost knocked down by a man of about his own age, who
dashed headlong into the narrow opening.

"Be so good as to look where you're going, my friend!" Robert
remonstrated, mildly, to the impetuous passenger; "you might give a man
warning before you throw him down and trample upon him."

The stranger stopped suddenly, looked very hard at the speaker, and then
gasped for breath.