Black Sheep

'Well, either you've windmills in the head, or she's very very different from the rest of her family!'

'Of course she is! You don't suppose I'd have fallen in love with her if she hadn't been, do you?'

'No, and I don't suppose her family would countenance it for an instant!'

'Lord, Letty, what's that got to say to anything?'

She laughed. 'You don't change much, Miles! You always were a care-for-nobody, and you always will be! I wish you may succeed with your Abigail. She's the youngest sister, isn't she? I never met her, but I'm acquainted with Mary Brede, and have been avoiding James Wendover and his odious wife for years.'

'Yes, that's what I mean to do,' he said.

His next visit was to a slightly portly gentleman, residing in Mount Street, who stared unbelievingly at him for a moment, before ejaculating: 'Calverleigh!' and starting forward to wring his hand. 'Well, well, well. After all these years! I hardly recognised you, you old devil!'

'No, I had to look twice at you, too. You're as fat as a flawn, Naffy!'

'Well, at least no one would take me for a dashed blackamoor!' retorted Mr Nafferton.

After this exchange of compliments, the two middle-aged gentlemen settled down, with a bottle between them, to indulge in reminiscences which, had they been privileged to hear them, would have startled Mr Nafferton's wife, and

considerably diminished his credit with his heir.

'Lord, how it takes me back, seeing you again!' said Mr Nafferton a trifle wistfully. 'Those were the days!'

'Nights, mostly,' said Mr Calverleigh. 'How many times did you end up in a lighthouse? I lost count! What became of the Dasher, by the way?'

'Dolly!' uttered Mr Nafferton. 'To think I should have forgotten she was used to be your peculiar!' He chuckled. 'You'd never recognise her! She set up a fancy-house a dozen or more years ago! Drives in the park in a smart barouche, with one or two of her prime articles, and looks like a duchess! Behaves like one, too! No Haymarket ware in her house: all regular Incognitas! Or so I'm told!' he added hastily.

Mr Calverleigh grinned, but merely said: 'Became an Abbess, did she? Yes, she always was as shrewd as she could hold together. Where's this fancy-house of hers?'

Armed with this information, his next visit was to a house in Bloomsbury, where he sent in his card. Miss Abigail Wendover would certainly not have approved of this excursion.

Mr Calverleigh, ushered into a saloon, was still inspecting the elegance of its furnishings with deep appreciation when the lady upon whom he had come to call entered the room, his card in her hand, and exclaimed: 'It is you! Good God! I couldn't believe it!'

Mr Calverleigh, laughter in his eyes, took two long strides towards her, caught her in his arms, and heartily embraced her.

She returned the embrace, but said: 'Now, that's quite enough! I'll have you know I'm a respectable woman now!'

Mr Calverleigh, most reprehensibly, gave a shout of mirth.

'Well, you know what I mean!' said the lady, bridling a little.

'Yes, to be sure, I do. Who gave you the gingerbread,

Dolly?'

'Oh, he was a regular rabshackle!' she disclosed. 'You wouldn't have known him, for he was long after your time. I never liked him above half, but he was full of juice, and I'm bound to say he bled very freely. What I mean is, he was very generous to me,' she amended, suddenly attacked by a fit of alarming primness.

Mr Calverleigh was unimpressed. 'No, is that what you mean? Come down from your high ropes! Do you remember the night a party of us went on a spree to Tothill Fields, and you broke a bottle of Stark Naked over the head of the fellow that was trying to gouge my eyes out?'

'No, I don't!' she said sharply. 'And if you hadn't got into a mill with a bruiser and a couple of draymen because you was as drunk as Davy's sow I wouldn't have had to demean myself ! If I did do anything of the sort, which I don't at all remember!'

'I must be thinking of someone else,' said Mr Calverleigh meekly. 'What was the name of that towheaded bit of game Tom Plumley brought along with him?'

'That fussock!' she exclaimed, in a voice vibrant with scorn. 'Why, she hadn't enough spunk to hit a blackbeetle on the head! Now, give over, Miles, do! I don't say I'm not glad to see you again: well, it's like a breath of old times, but that's the trouble! Seeing you makes me forget myself, and start talking flash, which is a thing I haven't done in years! What's more, you didn't come here to crack about old revel-routs! And if, Mr Calverleigh,' she added, with another transition into gentility, but with a twinkle in her sharp eyes, 'you have come here in search of a bit of game, I must warn you that you will find no cheap molls in this establishment, but only young ladies of refinement.'

'That's very good, Dolly!' he approved. 'Did it take you long to learn to talk like that?'

'Out with it! What is it you want?' she demanded, ignoring