“And then you went to bed.”

“I waited ever so long, because I thought that Maria would want to see me.  At last she sent me a note.  Maria is so imprudent, you know.  If he had found anything in her writing, it would have been terrible, you know,—­quite terrible.  And who can say whether Jemima mayn’t tell?”

“And what did she say?”

“Come; that’s tellings, Master Johnny.  I took very good care to take it with me to the office this morning, for fear of accidents.”

But Eames was not so widely awake to the importance of his friend’s adventures as he might have been had he not been weighted with adventures of his own.

“I shouldn’t care so much,” said he, “about that fellow Crosbie, going to a friend, as I should about his going to a police magistrate.”

“He’ll put it in a friend’s hands, of course,” said Cradell, with the air of a man who from experience was well up in such matters.  “And I suppose you’ll naturally come to me.  It’s a deuced bore to a man in a public office, and all that kind of thing, of course.  But I’m not the man to desert my friend.  I’ll stand by you, Johnny, my boy.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Eames, “I don’t think that I shall want that.”

“You must be ready with a friend, you know.”

“I should write down to a man I know in the country, and ask his advice,” said Eames; “an older sort of friend, you know.”

“By Jove, old fellow, take care what you are about.  Don’t let them say of you that you show the white feather.  Upon my honour, I’d sooner have anything said of me than that.  I would, indeed,—­anything.”

“I’m not afraid of that,” said Eames, with a touch of scorn in his voice.  “There isn’t much thought about white feathers nowadays,—­not in the way of fighting duels.”

After that, Cradell managed to carry back the conversation to Mrs Lupex and his own peculiar position, and as Eames did not care to ask from his companion further advice in his own matters, he listened nearly in silence till they reached Burton Crescent.

“I hope you found the noble earl well,” said Mrs Roper to him, as soon as they were all seated at dinner.

“I found the noble earl pretty well, thank you,” said Johnny.

It had become plainly understood by all the Roperites that Eames’s position was quite altered since he had been honoured with the friendship of Lord De Guest.  Mrs Lupex, next to whom he always sat at dinner, with a view to protecting her as it were from the dangerous neighbourhood of Cradell, treated him with a marked courtesy.  Miss Spruce always called him “sir.”  Mrs Roper helped him the first of the gentlemen, and was mindful about his fat and gravy, and Amelia felt less able than she was before to insist upon the possession of his heart and affections.  It must not be supposed that Amelia intended to abandon the fight, and allow the enemy to walk off with his forces; but she felt herself constrained to treat him with a deference that was hardly compatible with the perfect equality which should attend any union of hearts.