Striking across a path, which led through a corner of the plantation
to a space of ground containing a small garden, quaintly trimmed in
the Dutch taste, and a brick house of moderate dimensions, half
overgrown with ivy and jessamine, Clarence and his inviter paused at
the door of the said mansion, and the latter welcomed his guest to his
abode.

"Pardon me," said Clarence, as a damsel in waiting opened the door,
"but a very severe attack of rheumatism obliges me to keep on my hat:
you will, I hope, indulge me in my rudeness."

"To be sure, to be sure, sir. I myself suffer terribly from
rheumatism in the winter; though you look young, sir, very young, to
have an old man's complaint. Ah, the people of my day were more
careful of themselves, and that is the reason we are such stout
fellows in our age."

And the worthy steward looked complacently down at legs which very
substantially filled their comely investments. "True, sir," said
Clarence, laying his hand upon that of the steward, who was just about
to open the door of an apartment; "but suffer me at least to request
you not to introduce me to any of the ladies of your family. I could
not, were my very life at stake, think of affronting them by not
doffing my hat. I have the keenest sense of what is due to the sex,
and I must seriously entreat you, for the sake of my health during the
whole of the coming winter, to suffer our conversation not to take
place in their presence."

"Sir, I honour your politeness," said the prim little steward: "I,
myself, like every true Briton, reverence the ladies; we will