"Methought 'twas more like to be the other," replied Will. "Yet you--how
dare you think thus of that lady? Why, Jack, 'twas the Lady Catharine
Knollys, sister to the Earl of Banbury!"

Law did not at once make any answer. He turned to the dressing-table and
began making such shift as he could to better his appearance.

"Will," said he, at length, "you are, as ever, a babe and a suckling. I
quite despair of you. 'Twould serve no purpose to explain anything to so
faint a heart as yours. But you may come with me."

"And whither?"

"Whither? Where else, than to the residence of this same lady! Look
you, I have learned this. She is, as you say, the sister of the Earl of
Banbury, and is for the time at the town house in Knightwell Terrace.
Moreover, if that news be worth while to so white-feathered a swain as
yourself, the other, damsel, the dark one--the one with the mighty
pretty little foot--lives there for the time as the guest of Lady
Catharine. They are rated thick as peas in a pod. True, we are
strangers, yet I venture we have made a beginning, and if we venture
more we may better that beginning. Should I falter, when luck gave me
the run of _trente et le va_ but yesterday? Nay, ever follow fortune
hard, and she waits for you."

"Yes," said Will, scornfully. "You would get the name of gambler, and
add to it the name of fortune-hunting, heiress-seeking adventurer."

"Not so," replied John Law, taking snuff calmly and still keeping the
evenness of his temper. "My own fortune, as I admit, I keep safe at the