cuse to Lady Afy, which was not expected,
he ran after the Baronet, and soon reached him.

'Grafton, I shall be punctual: but there is one point on which I wish to
speak to you at once. The cause of this meeting may be kept, I hope, a
secret?'

'So far as I am concerned, an inviolable one,' bowed the Baronet,
stiffly; and they parted.

The Duke returned satisfied, for Sir Lucius Grafton ever observed his
word, to say nothing of the great interest which he surely had this time
in maintaining his pledge.

Our hero thought that he never should reach London. The journey seemed
a day; and the effort to amuse Lady Afy, and to prevent her from
suspecting, by his conduct, that anything had occurred, was most
painful. Silent, however, he at last became; but her mind, too, was
engaged, and she supposed that her admirer was quiet only because, like
herself, he was happy. At length they reached her house, but he excused
himself from entering, and drove on immediately to Annesley. He was at
Lady Bloomerly's. Lord Darrell had not returned, and his servant did not
expect him. Lord Squib was never to be found.

The Duke put on a great coat over his uniform and drove to White's; it
was really a wilderness. Never had he seen fewer men there in his life,
and there were none of his set. The only young-looking man was old
Colonel Carlisle, who, with his skilfully enamelled cheek, flowing
auburn locks, shining teeth, and tinted whiskers, might have been
mistaken for gay twenty-seven, instead of grey seventy-two; but the
Colonel had the gout, to say nothing of any other objections.

The Duke took up the 'Courier' and read three or four advertisements
of quack medicines, but nobody entered. It was nearly midnight: he
got nervous. Somebody came in; Lord Hounslow for his rubber. Even his
favoured child, Bagshot, would be better than nobody. The Duke protested
that the next acquaintance who entered should be his second, old or
young. His vow had scarcely been registered when Arundel Dacre came in
alone. He was the last man to whom the Duke wished to address himself,
but Fate seemed to have decided it, and the Duke walked up to him.

'Mr. Dacre, I am about to ask of you a favour to which I have no claim.'

Mr. Dacre looked a little confused, and murmured his willingness to do
anything.

'To be explicit, I am engaged in an affair of honour of an urgent
nature. Will you be my friend?'

'Willingly.' He spoke with more ease. 'May I ask the