“Fair sir, you will be careful,” she said, in a soft and pleading voice.  “If hurt were to come to you for having so gallantly befriended me, I should know no peace or happiness again!”

Tom looked with a smile into the face of the speaker; and Cale heard the words, and saw the look.  He gave a little sigh, and walked on in deep thought.

It was Tom and Rosamund who did the greater part of the talking, even after they got home and partook of the dish of tea.  This then costly beverage was reckoned by Rosamund as a Sunday treat, and sipped with great relish; and Tom took it for the first time, saying he would e’en make shift to like it, since Mistress Rose vouched that it was good, although he had hitherto refused it when offered at the houses of the fine folks he had visited.

So in talk and tea drinking an hour slipped away; and then the perruquier rose and bid Rosamund get her hood and come; for it was high time to fetch her aunt, and go back to Highgate.

Tom would have liked to accompany them once more, but some instinct restrained him from making the offer.  He bade adieu to Rosamund at her own door, and went back to sit by the fire and muse of all the things that had happened to him during this momentous week.

CHAPTER VIII.  THE GREAT DUKE.

“Now, Tom, keep your eyes well open.  He is about to appear!”

Tom was standing, tall and silent, feeling singularly out of place in that gorgeous company, in a magnificent reception room, brilliantly lighted, and crowded from one end to the other with a throng of highly-born and fashionable persons.

He had been introduced by Lord Claud into this gay assembly, and was already half disposed to wish himself away.

Tom had been several weeks in town now; and after his first encounter with Lord Claud, which had led to such close intimacy for a few days, he had seen nothing of that remarkable personage for the space of two or three weeks.

Although perhaps a little piqued that his patron had not sent him so much as a line of invitation, or seemed to remember his existence, Tom was not sure that he regretted his lack of memory.  Lord Claud had certainly fascinated his imagination, and won his affections; but he seemed to be a mysterious character, whose friendship might not prove too desirable a possession.  It was not his place, he thought, with the simple pride of the countryman, to seek to thrust himself upon a man so much greater than himself.  So he had gone about seeing the sights of the town with Harry Gay, spending his money with some freedom, and indulging in a little play and dicing at various houses of entertainment.  But he kept within moderate bounds in his pleasures, both because he desired to eke out his funds as far as possible, and because he did not wish to fall under the displeasure of his kind host, Master Cale, the father of pretty Rosamund.