I found her, as I had hoped, with Mr. Roper. He looked mighty serious over our escapade, but informed me that he had loyally attended to my instructions, and procured us a lodging, as for two country ladies who had come up to view the sights, in as distant a part of the town as he could compass on short notice. We went out immediately by a side door, and, having all got into a coach that was in waiting, were driven to Holborn, where we alighted, and thence, for precaution, walked to a quiet house in Great Coram Street, near the Foundlings, where our handsome escort left us, promising to call, at discretion, in a few days, and recommending us in the meanwhile to lie as close as rabbits in a furrow. He was as good as his word, coming in a week later, after dark, with a face as long as a lawyer’s writ. “Well, madam,” he said, “you have cut the ground from under your own feet with a vengeance.” I laughed. “You have been reading ‘Angélique’s’ Last Testament?” “Pray the Fates it may not be so indeed,” he said gravely; and, pulling a paper out of his pocket, began to refer to it. “Why, do you not know,” said he, “that others besides our _Volpone_ are reported interested in that strange disappearance of a one-time heir-presumptive to _Volpone’s_ own title?” “Perfectly.” “And yet you go and put your head into the lion’s mouth?” “I would do more to expose a villain. I would go all lengths to right an injured man. He is no more mad than I am.” “That seems probable.” He unfolded a second paper from the other, and pointing silently to a paragraph, handed it to me. “The king” (I read from the _Gazette_) “has bestowed the vacant garter upon the newly created Marquis of Synge;” and a little lower down: “It is stated that the Earl of Herring has been relieved, at his own request, of all offices which he held under the Crown. His lordship is understood to have long contemplated a complete retirement from public life.” I shrieked with laughter. I danced about the room, waving the paper over my head. The noise I made brought up one of two gentlemen who lived below. He put his head in at the door, with a leer and a grin: “O, a thousand pardons!” said he; “I thought you was alone, and that something had happened”--and he vanished. “He thought something had happened!” groaned Bob dismally; and, taking the paper from me, he read out elsewhere: “His Majesty’s final decision is supposed not unconnected with the _esclandres_ of a certain notorious lady, which have exercised the public curiosity for some time past, and which culminated on Saturday sennight in an attack too obvious in its direction to be overlooked.” I heard, glistening. “Well, I told him I recognised my debt, and should pay him,” I said. Bob folded the papers, and returned them to his pocket. His mouth and eyes were set in a kind of suffering smile. “You may know best how to play your hand for yourself,” he said. “God preserve your partner, that’s all.” “What have you to fear?”