than you. Life itself in your case; in mine only a new story for the town."
"Do you forget that they can attaint you of high treason?" he replied. "And that would mean a long imprisonment, and you would find it a tedious and very weary thing. I know, for I have tried it."
"High treason—imprisonment!" says I; "these are bogies for a child. Politics are wonderful affairs, but if they can clap Bab Gossiter in the 'Jug' and diet her on bad bread and dirty water, let 'em do it, boy, by every means, and I'll admire 'em for it."
"But if they threaten others?" he replied. "For instance, your papa, the Earl."
"Ho, ho, ho!" I laughed; but in my breast there was no levity. "A peer of the realm!"
"He is not to blame for being that," he answered, slyly, "and they will not the less respect him for it I am sure. And what of Derwentwater, Kenmare, Nithsdale in the late rebellion?"
Being properly hipped on this, I tried new tactics.
"Ah, I see," says I, "you wish to play at Hero, do you? Want a pretext to make the world ring by your devotion to a lady's little finger. A truce, boy, to these palpable devices."
He coloured high. Ridicule is the sovereign remedy for poetic notions in the young. He merely sniffed my black draught, however, and flung it from him.
