"Sir," said my companion at last, lifting the battered hat, "I
tender you my apology, and I shall be delighted to eat with you
in the ditch, if you are in the same mind about it?"
"Then you believe me?"
"Indubitably, sir," he answered with a faint smile; "had you
indeed been Sir Maurice, either he or I, and most probably I,
would be lying flat in the road, by this."
So, without more ado, we sat down in the ditch together, side by
side, and began to eat. And now I noticed that when he thought
my eye was upon him, my companion ate with a due deliberation and
nicety, and when he thought it was off, with a voracity that was
painful to witness. And after we had eaten a while in silence,
he turned to me with a sigh.
"This is very excellent cheese!" said he.
"The man from whom I bought it," said I, "called it a noble cheese,
I remember."
"I never tasted one of a finer flavor!" said my companion.
"Hunger is a fine sauce," said I, "and you are probably hungry?"
"Hungry!" he repeated, bolting a mouthful and knocking his hat over
his eyes with a slap on its dusty crown. "Egad, Mr. Vibart! so
would you be--so would any man be who has lived on anything he could
beg, borrow, or steal, with an occasional meal of turnips--in the
digging of which I am become astonishingly expert--and unripe
blackberries, which latter I have proved to be a very trying diet
in many ways--hungry, oh, damme!"
And after a while, when there nothing remained of loaf or cheese
save a few scattered crumbs, my companion leaned back, and gave
another sigh.
"Sir," said he, with an airy wave of the hand, "in me you behold
a highly promising young gentleman ruined by a most implacable
enemy--himself, sir. In the first place you must know my name is
Beverley--"
"Beverley?" I repeated.
"Beverley," he nodded, "Peregrine Beverley, very much at your service
--late of Beverley Place, Surrey, now of Nowhere-in-Particular."
"Beverley," said I again, "I have heard that name before."
"It is highly probable, Mr. Vibart; a fool of that name--fortunate
or unfortunate as you choose to classify him--lost houses, land,
and money in a single night's play. I am that fool, sir, though
you have doubtless heard particulars ere now?"