honoured, and I poor and proscribed. Deign to forgive thine enemy,
and take him as thy slave by right of conquest. Oh, Cogsbones! oh,
Gemini! what a jewel thou hast got!"

"Depart! thou disturbest me," said Adam, oblivious, in his absorption,
of the exact reasons for his repugnance, but feeling indistinctly that
something very loathsome and hateful was at his elbow; and, as he
spoke, he fitted the diamond into its socket.

"What! a jewel, a diamond--in the--in the--in the--MECHANICAL!"
faltered the friar, in profound astonishment, his mouth watering at
the sight. If the Eureka were to be envied before, how much more
enviable now. "If ever I get thee again, O ugly talisman," he
muttered to himself, "I shall know where to look for something better
than a pot to boil eggs."

"Depart, I say!" repeated Adam, turning round at last, and shuddering
as he now clearly recognized the friar, and recalled his malignity.
"Darest thou molest me still?"

The friar abjectly fell on his knees, and, after a long exordium of
penitent excuses, entreated the scholar to intercede in his favour
with the earl.

"I want not all thy honours and advancement, great Adam, I want only
to serve thee, trim thy furnace, and hand thee thy tools, and work out
my apprenticeship under thee, master. As for the earl, he will listen
to thee, I know, if thou tellest him that I had the trust of his foe,
the duchess; that I can give him all her closest secrets; that I--"