"Dipped in ink!" said the squire. "It comes to that, for you have to be writing while you munch it." "I hear all about you," said the earl; "Sir Raffle Buffle is an old crony of mine." "I don't suppose he ever heard my name as yet," said Johnny. "But do you really know him well, Lord De Guest?" "Haven't seen him these thirty years; but I did know him." "We call him old Huffle Scuffle." "Huffle Scuffle! Ha, ha, ha! He always was Huffle Scuffle; a noisy, pretentious, empty-headed fellow. But I oughtn't to say so before you, young man. Come, we'll go into the drawing-room." "And what did he say?" asked Lady Julia, as soon as the squire was gone. There was no attempt at concealment, and the question was asked in Johnny's presence. "Well, he did not say much. And coming from him, that ought to be taken as a good sign. He is to think of it, and let me see him again. You hold your head up, Johnny, and remember that you shan't want a friend on your side. Faint heart never won fair lady." At seven o'clock on the following morning Eames started on his return journey, and was at his desk at twelve o'clock,--as per agreement with his taskmaster at the Income-tax Office. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE COMBAT. [ILLUSTRATION: (untitled)] I have said that John Eames was at his office punctually at twelve; but an incident had happened before his arrival there very important in the annals which are now being told,--so important that it is essentially necessary that it should be described with some minuteness of detail. Lord De Guest, in the various conversations which he had had with Eames as to Lily Dale and her present position, had always spoken of Crosbie with the most vehement abhorrence. "He is a damned blackguard," said the earl, and the fire had come out of his round eyes as he spoke. Now the earl was by no means given to cursing and swearing, in the sense which is ordinarily applied to these words. When he made use of such a phrase as that quoted above, it was to be presumed that he in some sort meant what he said; and so he did, and had intended to signify that Crosbie by his conduct had merited all such condemnation as was the fitting punishment for blackguardism of the worst description. "He ought to have his neck broken," said Johnny. "I don't know about that," said the earl. "The present times have become so pretty behaved that corporal punishment seems to have gone out of fashion. I shouldn't care so much about that, if any other punishment had taken its place. But it seems to me that a blackguard such as Crosbie can escape now altogether unscathed." "He hasn't escaped yet," said Johnny.