Lord De Guest, in the various conversations which he had had with Eames as to Lily Dale and her present position, had always spoken of Crosbie with the most vehement abhorrence.  “He is a damned blackguard,” said the earl, and the fire had come out of his round eyes as he spoke.  Now the earl was by no means given to cursing and swearing, in the sense which is ordinarily applied to these words.  When he made use of such a phrase as that quoted above, it was to be presumed that he in some sort meant what he said; and so he did, and had intended to signify that Crosbie by his conduct had merited all such condemnation as was the fitting punishment for blackguardism of the worst description.

“He ought to have his neck broken,” said Johnny.

“I don’t know about that,” said the earl.  “The present times have become so pretty behaved that corporal punishment seems to have gone out of fashion.  I shouldn’t care so much about that, if any other punishment had taken its place.  But it seems to me that a blackguard such as Crosbie can escape now altogether unscathed.”

“He hasn’t escaped yet,” said Johnny.

“Don’t you go and put your finger in the pie and make a fool of yourself,” said the earl.  If it had behoved any one to resent in any violent fashion the evil done by Crosbie, Bernard Dale, the earl’s nephew, should have been the avenger.  This the earl felt, but under these circumstances he was disposed to think that there should be no such violent vengeance.  “Things were different when I was young,” he said to himself.  But Eames gathered from the earl’s tone that the earl’s words were not strictly in accordance with his thoughts, and he declared to himself over and over again that Crosbie had not yet escaped.

He got into the train at Guestwick, taking a first-class ticket, because the earl’s groom in livery was in attendance upon him.  Had he been alone he would have gone in a cheaper carriage.  Very weak in him, was it not? little also, and mean?  My friend, can you say that you would not have done the same at his age?  Are you quite sure that you would not do the same now that you are double his age?  Be that as it may, Johnny Eames did that foolish thing, and gave the groom in livery half-a-crown into the bargain.

“We shall have you down again soon, Mr John,” said the groom, who seemed to understand that Mr Eames was to be made quite at home at the manor.

He went fast to sleep in the carriage, and did not awake till the train was stopped at the Barchester Junction.

“Waiting for the up-train from Barchester, sir,” said the guard.  “They’re always late.”  Then he went to sleep again, and was aroused in a few minutes by some one entering the carriage in a great hurry.  The branch train had come in, just as the guardians of the line then present had made up their minds that the passengers on the main line should not be kept waiting any longer.  The transfer