"Fightin', m'lud! What, me?"
"What's the matter with your face--it's all swollen; there, your cheek?"
"Swellin', m'lud; I don't feel no swellin'."
"No, no; the other cheek."
"Oh, this, m'lud. Oh, 'e done it, 'e did; but I weren't fightin'."
"Who did it?"
"S' Mortimer's friend, 'e done it, 'e did."
"Sir Mortimer's friend?"
"Ah, 'im, m'lud."
"But, how in the world--"
"Wi' his fist, m'lud."
"What for?"
"'Cos I kicked 'im, I did."
"You--kicked Sir Mortimer Carnaby's friend!" exclaimed the Viscount. "What in heaven's name did you do that for?"
"'Cos you told me to, m'lud, you did."
"I told you to kick--"
"Yes, m'lud, you did. You sez to me, last week--arter I done up that butcher's boy--you sez to me, 'don't fight 'cept you can't 'elp it,' you sez; 'but allus pertect the ladies,' you sez, 'an if so be as 'e's too big to reach wi' your fists--why, use your boots,' you sez, an' so I did, m'lud."
"So you were protecting a lady, were you, Imp?"
"Miss Clemency, mam; yes, m'lud. She's been good ter me, Miss Clemency, mam 'as--an' so when I seen 'im strugglin' an' a-tryin' to kiss 'er--when I 'eered 'er cry out--I came in froo de winder, an' I kicked 'im, I did, an' then--"
"Imp," said the Viscount gravely, "you are forgetting your aitches! And so Sir Mortimer's friend kissed her, did he? Mind your aitches now!"
"Yes, m' lud; an' when Hi seen the tears hin her eyes--"
"Now you are mixing them, Imp!--tears in her eyes. Well?"
"Why then I kicked him, m' lud, an' he turned round an' give me this 'ere."
"And what was Sir Mortimer's friend like?"
"A tall--werry sleepy gentleman, wot smiled, m' lud."
"Ha!" exclaimed the Viscount, starting; "and with a scar upon one cheek?"
"Yes, m'lud."
His Lordship frowned. "That would be Chichester," said he thoughtfully. "Now I wonder what the devil should bring that fellow so far from London?"
"Well, m' lud," suggested Milo, shaking his golden curls, "I kind of 'specks there's a woman at the bottom of it. There mostly generally is."
"Hum!" said the Viscount.
"'Sides, m' lud, I 'eard 'im talkin' 'bout a lady to S' Mortimer!"
"Did they mention her name?"
"The sleepy one 'e did, m' lud. Jist as S' Mortimer climbed into the chaise--'Here's wishing you luck wi' the lovely Meredyth,' 'e sez."
"Meredith!" exclaimed the Viscount.
"Meredith, m' lud; 'the lovely Meredith,' 'e sez, an' then, as he stood watchin' the chaise drive away, 'may the best man win,' sez 'e to himself, 'an' that's me,' sez'e."
"Boy," said the Viscount, "have the horses put to--at once."
"Werry good, m' lud," and, touching his small hat, Milo of Crotona turned and set off as fast as his small legs would carry him.
"Gad!" exclaimed his Lordship, "this is more than I bargained for. I must be off."
"Indeed!" said Barnabas, who for the last minute or so had been watching a man who was strolling idly up the lane, a tall, languid gentleman in a jaunty hat. "You seem all at once in a mighty hurry to get to London."
"London!" repeated the Viscount, staring blankly. "London? Oh, why yes, to be sure, I was going to London; but--hum--fact of the matter is, I've changed my mind about it, my dear Bev; I'm going--back. I'm following Carnaby."
"Ah!" said Barnabas, still intent upon the man in the lane, "Carnaby again."
"Oh, damn the fellow!" exclaimed the Viscount.
"But--he is your friend."
"Hum!" said the Viscount; "but Carnaby is always--Carnaby, and she--"
"Meaning the Lady Cleone," said Barnabas.
"Is a woman--"
"'The lovely Meredith'!" nodded Barnabas.
"Exactly!" said the Viscount, frowning; "and Carnaby is the devil with women."
"But not this woman," answered Barnabas, frowning a little also.
"My dear fellow, men like Carnaby attract all women--"
"That," said Barnabas, shaking his head, "that I cannot believe."
"Have you known many women, Bev?"
"No," answered Barnabas; "but I have met the Lady Cleone--"
"Once!" added the Viscount significantly.
"Once!" nodded Barnabas.
"Hum," said the Viscount. "And, therefore," added Barnabas, "I don't think that we need fear Sir Mortimer as a rival."
"That," retorted the Viscount, shaking his head, "is because you don't know him--either."
Hereupon, having come to the inn and having settled their score, the Viscount stepped out to the stables accompanied by the round-faced landlord, while Barnabas, leaning out from the open casement, stared idly into the lane. And thus he once more beheld the gentleman in the jaunty hat, who stood lounging in the shade of one of the great trees that grew before the inn, glancing up and down the lane in the attitude of one who waits. He was tall and slender, and clad in a tight-fitting blue coat cut in the extreme of the prevailing fashion, and beneath his curly-brimmed hat, Barnabas saw a sallow face with lips a little too heavy, nostrils a little too thin, and eyes a little too close together, at least, so Barnabas thought, but what he noticed more particularly was the fact that one of the buttons of the blue coat had been wrenched away.
Now, as the gentleman lounged there against the tree, he switched languidly at a bluebell that happened to grow within his reach, cut it down, and with gentle, lazy taps beat it slowly into nothingness, which done, he drew out his watch, glanced at it, frowned, and was in the act of thrusting it back into his fob when the hedge opposite was parted suddenly and a man came through. A wretched being he looked, dusty, unkempt, unshorn, whose quick, bright eyes gleamed in the thin oval of his pallid face. At sight of this man the gentleman's lassitude vanished, and he stepped quickly forward.
"Well," he demanded, "did you find her?"
"Yes, sir."
"And a cursed time you've been about it."
"Annersley is further than I thought, sir, and--"
"Pah! no matter, give me her answer," and the gentleman held out a slim white