"Your grace is munificent. If the duchess is on earth, I will find her;--not for the reward only, though it is certainly a very great inducement to a poor man with a large family; but for the love and honor I bear your grace and the late Sir Lemuel Levison," said the detective, earnestly, as he bowed and took leave. The first dinner-bell rang. The duke hastened to his own room, not to dress for dinner, but to prepare for his night journey to Scotland. He ordered his valet to pack a valise with all that would be necessary for a few days' absence, and then sent him to call a close cab. By this time the second dinner-bell rang, and the duke went down, not to dine, but to take leave of Lady Belgrade. He found her ladyship in the drawing-room. "Give me your arm to dinner, if you please, Duke," she said, rising. "I hope you will excuse me; but I have only come to say good-by. I have but time to catch the train. Kerr has already put my luggage in the cab, which is waiting for me at the door. Good-by, dear Lady Belgrade. You will co-operate with Setter in all things necessary to a successful search, I know. Setter has my orders to report to you--" "You take my breath away!" gasped the dowager. "Write to me by every mail. Keep me informed of events--" "You will kill yourself, Duke! flying off without your dinner, and looking fitter for going to bed than on a journey!" panted the dowager. "Now then, good-by in earnest, dear Lady Belgrade, and God bless you," concluded the duke, raising her hand to his lips and bowing. And before the dowager could say another word he was gone. "Well, if he lives to be as old as I am, he will take things easier. Though, if he goes on at this rate, he won't live to be old," mused the old lady, as she slowly waddled into the dining-room, and took her seat at the table to enjoy her solitary green turtle soup. CHAPTER XXII. AT LONE. The Duke of Hereward went out to the close cab that was waiting for him before the door. He found his valet standing by it, with a pair of railroad rugs over his arm. He directed the man to mount to a seat beside the cabman, and gave the latter orders where to drive. Then he entered the cab and closed all the doors and windows, that he might not be seen by any chance acquaintance. He was supposed by all the world of London to be away on his wedding tour, and he was willing to let them continue to believe so, until they should be enlightened by a report of the great trial, when they would learn the fact and the explanation at once, and thus be prevented from making undesirable conjectures and speculations concerning his presence at such a time in England. He leaned back on his seat, and the cabman, having received directions from the valet, drove rapidly off toward the Great Northern Railway Station at Kings Cross. An hour's fast drive brought them to their destination.