y 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
Green Lion. For the rest, I seek at the start only respectful footing
with this maid herself. When first I saw her, I knew well enough how the
end would be. We were made for each other. This whole world was made for
us both. Will, boy, I could not live without the Lady Catharine
Knollys!"

"Oh, cease such talk, Jack! 'Tis ill-mannered, such presumption
regarding a lady, even had you known her long. Besides, 'tis but another
of your fancies, Jack," said Will. "Wilt never make an end of such
follies?"

"Yes, my boy," said his brother, gravely. "I have made an end. Indeed, I
made it the other morning at Sadler's Wells."

"Methinks," said Will, dryly, "that it might be well first to be sure
that you can win past the front door of the house of Knollys."

John Law still kept both his temper and his confidence.

"Come with me," said he, blithely, "and I will show you how that thing
may be done."

CHAPTER VII

TWO MAIDS A-BROIDERING

"Now a plague take all created things, Lady Kitty!" cried Mary Connynge,
petulantly flinging down a silken pattern over which she had pretended
to be engaged. "There are devils in