friend of yours.'

'You are very kind, my lord.'

The earl stood at the door to see Colonel Halkett drive off: he declined
to accompany him to Mount Laurels.

In the place of the carriage stood a man, who growled 'Where's your
horsewhip, butcher?'

He dogged the earl some steps across the common. Everard returned to his
hotel and slept soundly during the remainder of the dark hours.




CHAPTER LII

QUESTION OF A PILGRIMAGE AND AN ACT OF PENANCE

Then came a glorious morning for sportsmen. One sniffed the dews, and
could fancy fresh smells of stubble earth and dank woodland grass in the
very streets of dirty Bevisham. Sound sleep, like hearty dining, endows
men with a sense of rectitude, and sunlight following the former, as a
pleasant spell of conversational ease or sweet music the latter, smiles
a celestial approval of the performance: Lord Romfrey dismissed his
anxieties. His lady slightly ruffled him at breakfast in a letter
saying that she wished to join him. He was annoyed at noon by a message,
wherein the wish was put as a request. And later arrived another
message, bearing the character of an urgent petition. True, it might be