you are not the most
ungrateful and the most foolish of all men upon earth, you will take
the goods the gods provide you, and make the best use of time and
opportunity."
"All I can say, Sherbrooke," replied Wilton, "is, that I shall never
return to that house again, except for a formal visit to the Duke."
"Fine resolutions speedily broken!" exclaimed Lord Sherbrooke: and he
was right.

CHAPTER XV.
Had Wilton Brown wanted an immediate illustration of the fragile
nature of man's purposes, of how completely and thoroughly our
firmest resolutions are the sport of fate and accident, it could have
been furnished to him within five minutes after he left the gates of
the house where he had paid an unintended visit.
Lord Sherbrooke seemed perfectly well acquainted with the house and
its neighbourhood, and led the way round through a green lane at the
back, which presently, in one of its most sequestered spots, offered
to the eyes a somewhat large old-fashioned public-house, standing
back in a small paved court: while planted before it, on the edge of
the road, was a sign-post, bearing on its top the effigy of a huge
green dragon.
Now, whether it be from some unperceived association in the minds of
the English people between the chimerical gentleman we have lately
mentioned and the patron saint of this island, who, it seems, if all
tales were told, was not a bit better than the dragon that he slew;
or for what other reason I know not, yet there is no doubt of the
fact, that in all ages English vintners have had a particular
predilection for green dragons; and that name was so commonly
attached to a public-house, in those days, that it had not at all
struck Wilton Brown that the Green Dragon to which Lord Sherbrooke
ordered the horses to be led, was that very identical Green Dragon
where his acquaintance Mr. Green had given him the rendezvous.
He might not, indeed, have heard Lord Sherbrooke's order at all; but
it is still more probable, that he only did not attend to it, as all
his thoughts were taken up at the moment by the discovery of what
place Lord Sherbrooke had brought him to. It now, however, struck
him--when he saw the Green Dragon standing in the Green Lane,
precisely as it had been described by Green--that it might very
likely be the identical house to which he had been directed; and on
asking Lord Sherbrooke what was the name of the mansion they had just
visited, the matter was placed beyond doubt by his replying,
"Beaufort House. The Duke only