The gentleman with a helmet there, who regards us so benignly, will presently earn a shilling by calling me a hansom.

Yet in effect he does me a far greater service.

He stands for a multitude of cold Anglo-Saxon laws, adamant, incorruptible, inflexible--as certain as the laws of Nature herself.

I am quite aware that by this time I ought to be lying in a dark cellar with a gag in my mouth, or perhaps in the river with a dagger in my chest.

But here in England, no!" The Prince smiled--to all appearance a very genial smile.
"You are right, my dear friend," he said, "yet what you say possesses, shall we call it, a somewhat antediluvian flavour.