These words were spoken with caution, and yet every one of them fell full upon Tom’s ears.  These ears, be it noted, were very keen ones, as is often the case with those who have tracked game and hunted the fallow deer in the free forest.  Moreover, Tom had not yet grown callous to the sounds of talk and laughter in the streets.  He must needs listen to all he heard, and these phrases were plainly meant to meet his ear.

He glanced at Lord Claud to see if he had heard, but there was no change in the thoughtful face.  His companion appeared lost in his own reflections, and Tom, dropping a pace behind, looked back to see who had spoken.

As he had surmised, it was the four bully beaux whom he had met at the Folly the previous day.  So much had happened in the interim, that Tom could have believed it a week ago.  At his look they all burst into jeering laughter, but it did not appear as though they desired speech of him, or any sort of encounter, for they plunged hastily down a side street, and Tom saw that Lord Claud had just turned his head to see what hindered his companion.

“Pay no heed to drunken roisterers i’ the streets, Tom,” advised his mentor; “a quarrel is quicker provoked than mended, except at the sword’s point, and unseemly is brawling at street corners.  Yon fellows bear you some ill will for my threat yesterday.  They will do you a bad turn if the chance offers.  They are an evil crew, and my Lord Mayor has been warned against them ere now; but it is difficult in these days to give every man his deserts.  London would be depopulated if all who merited it were transported to the plantations of Virginia.”

A little later they met Harry Gay sauntering from one playhouse to another.  He looked with a sort of amused surprise at Tom, who paused to send a message to Master Cale, to tell him that he would not be at home that night, and was not to be troubled after in any wise.

“Do you lodge with Lord Claud?” asked Harry, with a curious glance towards the elegant figure sauntering on, and exchanging bows with the fine ladies in the coaches.

“I know not; but I ride forth with him ere long on some errand I wot not of.  Have no fears for me, good Harry, I can take care of myself well enow.”

“You have good confidence, my young friend.  I trust it is not the pride which goes before a fall.  It savours of peril to steer one’s bark over unknown waters, or to follow a road which leads no man knows whither;” and Harry nodded his head in the direction of Lord Claud, with a gesture that was as eloquent as any words could be.

“Tush!” answered Tom, with something of the careless indifference he had caught from Lord Claud and his associates; “I have come to see the world, and see it I will.  If there be peril, why, so much the better.  I am sick to death of sitting at ease in the safe shelter of home.  A man can die but once, and he had better live first.”