Evan stared a moment at the wretched object, whose dream of meeting a beneficent old gentleman had brought him to be the sport of a cynical farceur.  He had shivers on his own account, seeing something of himself magnified, and he loathed the fellow, only to feel more acutely what a stigma may be.

’It ‘s a case I can’t advise in,’ he said, as gently as he could.  ’I should be off the grounds in a hurry.’

‘And then I’m where I was before I met the horrid old brute!’ Raikes moaned.

’I told him over a pint of port-and noble stuff is that Aurora port!—­I told him—­I amused him till he was on the point of bursting—­I told him I was such a gentleman as the world hadn’t seen—­minus money.  So he determined to launch me.  He said I should lead the life of such a gentleman as the world had not yet seen—­on that simple condition, which appeared to me childish, a senile whim; rather an indulgence of his.’

Evan listened to the tribulations of his friend as he would to those of a doll—­the sport of some experimental child.  By this time he knew something of old Tom Cogglesby, and was not astonished that he should have chosen John Raikes to play one of his farces on.  Jack turned off abruptly the moment he saw they were nearing human figures, but soon returned to Evan’s side, as if for protection.

‘Hoy!  Harrington!’ shouted Harry, beckoning to him.  ’Come, make haste!  I’m in a deuce of a mess.’

The two Wheedles—­Susan and Polly—­were standing in front of him, and after his call to Evan, he turned to continue some exhortation or appeal to the common sense of women, largely indulged in by young men when the mischief is done.

’Harrington, do speak to her.  She looks upon you as a sort of parson.  I can’t make her believe I didn’t send for her.  Of course, she knows I ’m fond of her.  My dear fellow,’ he whispered, ’I shall be ruined if my grandmother hears of it.  Get her away, please.  Promise anything.’

Evan took her hand and asked for the child.

‘Quite well, sir,’ faltered Susan.

‘You should not have come here.’

Susan stared, and commenced whimpering:  ‘Didn’t you wish it, sir?’

‘Oh, she’s always thinking of being made a lady of,’ cried Polly.  ’As if Mr. Harry was going to do that.  It wants a gentleman to do that.’

‘The carriage came for me, sir, in the afternoon,’ said Susan, plaintively, ‘with your compliments, and would I come.  I thought—­’

‘What carriage?’ asked Evan.

Raikes, who was ogling Polly, interposed grandly, ‘Mine!’

‘And you sent in my name for this girl to come here?’ Evan turned wrathfully on him.

’My dear Harrington, when you hit you knock down.  The wise require but one dose of experience.  The Countess wished it, and I did dispatch.’

‘The Countess!’ Harry exclaimed; ’Jove! do you mean to say that the Countess—­’

‘De Saldar,’ added Jack.  ‘In Britain none were worthy found.’