“Betray him? No! But I'll set a term to his plotting. Egad! Has he not lost enough in the South Sea Bubble, without sinking the little that is left in some wild-goose Jacobite plot?” “How shall it matter to you, since he's sworn to disinherit you?” “How, madam?” Rotherby laughed cunningly. “I'll prevent the one and the other--and pay off Mr. Caryll at the same time. Three birds with one stone, let me perish!” He reached for his hat. “I must find this fellow Green.” “What will you do?” she asked, a slight anxiety trembling in her voice. “Stir up his suspicions of Caryll. He'll be ready enough to act after his discomfiture at Maidstone. I'll warrant he's smarting under it. If once we can find cause to lay Caryll by the heels, the fear of the consequences should bring his lordship to his senses. 'Twill be my turn then.” “But you'll do nothing that--that will hurt your father?” she enjoined him, her hand upon his shoulder. “Trust me,” he laughed, and added cynically: “It would hardly sort with my interests to involve him. It will serve me best to frighten him into reason and a sense of his paternal duty.” CHAPTER IX. THE CHAMPION Mr. Caryll was well and handsomely housed, as became the man of fashion, in the lodging he had taken in Old Palace Yard. Knowing him from abroad, it was not impossible that the government--fearful of sedition since the disturbance caused by the South Sea distress, and aware of an undercurrent of Jacobitism--might for a time, at least, keep an eye upon him. It behooved him, therefore, to appear neither more nor less than a lounger, a gentleman of pleasure who had come to London in quest of diversion. To support this appearance, Mr. Caryll had sought out some friends of his in town. There were Stapleton and Collis, who had been at Oxford with him, and with whom he had ever since maintained a correspondence and a friendship. He sought them out on the very evening of his arrival--after his interview with Lord Ostermore. He had the satisfaction of being handsomely welcomed by them, and was plunged under their guidance into the gaieties that the town afforded liberally for people of quality. Mr. Caryll was--as I hope you have gathered--an agreeable fellow, very free, moreover, with the contents of his well-equipped purse; and so you may conceive that the town showed him a very friendly, cordial countenance. He fell into the habits of the men whose company he frequented; his days were as idle as theirs, and spent at the parade, the Ring, the play, the coffeehouse and the ordinary.