WYLDER'S HAJVD.
119
The fact is, I suppose, he was confoundedly nervous, dys-
peptic, or whatever else it might be, and the heat and glare
were too much for him.
So, out he went into the chill, fresh night-air, and round
the corner into the quaint main-street of Gylingden, and
walked down it in the dark, nearly to the last house by
the corner of the Redman's Dell road, and then back again,
and so on, trying to tire himself, I think; and every time
he walked down the street, with his face toward London, his
yellow eyes gleamed through the dark air, with the fixed
gaze of a man looking out for the appearance of a vehicle.
It, perhaps, indicated an anxiety and a mental look-out
in that direction, for he really expected no such thing.
Then he dropped into the ''Brandon Arms," and had a
glass of brandy and water, and a newspaper, in the
coffee-room; and then he ordered a "fly," and drove in
it to Lawyer Larkin's house —" The Lodge," it was called
— and entered Mr. Larkin's drawing-room very cheer-
fully.
"How quiet you are here," said the Captain. "I have
1 een awfully dissipated since I saw you."
"In an innocent way. my dear Captain Lake, you mean,
of course — in an innocent way."
"Oh! no; billiards, I assure you. Do you play?"
"Oh ! dear no — not that I see any essential harm in
the game as a game, for those, I mean, who don't object
to that sort of thing; but for a resident here, putting
aside other feelings — a resident holding a position — it
would not do, I assure you. There are people there
whom one could not associate with comfortably. I don't
care. I hope, how poor a man may be, but do let him be a
gentleman. A man, my dear Captain Lake, whose fa-
ther before him has been a gentleman (old Larkin, while
in the flesh, was an organist, and kept a small day school