We walked up Holborn together. He had eyes for every incident, a tongue that seldom ceased wagging. Many a smart and powdered working girl, tripping to her business, nudged her companion and looked after him. He accepted it all with a bold indifference--the masterful condescension that sets tight-laced breasts a-twittering under their twice-turned jackets. He was much better dressed than I was and carried himself with some show of fashion. Duke had left when we reached home, and his absence I hardly regretted. “Well,” said my brother, as we entered the sitting-room, “you’ve decent quarters, Renny, and no doubt deserve them for being a good boy. You can give me some breakfast, I suppose?” “If you don’t mind eating alone,” I said. “I’ve got no appetite.” “All the worse for you. I never lose mine.” The table was already laid as Duke had left it. I fetched a knuckle of ham from our private store and placed it before my unwelcome guest, who fell to with a healthy vigor of hunger. “It’s as well, perhaps, I didn’t find you last night,” he said, munching and enjoying himself. “We should have sat up late and then I might have overslept myself and missed the fun. I say, didn’t he go down plump? I hoped the rope would break and that we should have it over again.” “Jason!” I cried, “drop it, won’t you? I tell you I got caught there by mistake, and that the whole thing was horrible to me!” “Oh, all right,” he said, with a laugh. “I shouldn’t have thought you’d have cared, but I won’t say anything more about it.” I would not challenge word or tone in him. To what could I possibly appeal in one so void of the first instincts of humanity? He pushed his plate away presently and fetched out a little pipe and began to smoke. I had sat all the time by the window, looking vaguely upon the crowded street. “Now,” I said, turning to him, “let’s hear why you are in London?” He raised his eyebrows with an affectation of perplexity. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said. “But there’s nothing to explain. I wanted to come and I came.” “Four days ago?” “More or less.” “But what brought you? Where did you get the money?” “Never mind. That’s my affair. I did get it, and there’s an end.” “How long do you intend to stop?” “It all depends upon circumstances. Maybe I shall get something to do here.” “Well, you might. I had nothing more to recommend me than you have when I first came.” “Not so much, my good fellow.” He threw out his chest and a whiff of smoke together. “I’ve more about me to take the fancy, I believe, and I’m not handicapped with a depressing secret for the unscrupulous to trade upon. Besides, you forget that I’ve a friend at court, which you never had.” “Meaning me. It’s no good, I can tell you in the very beginning. I’ve not influence enough with my employer to foist a useless fresh hand upon him.” “We’ll see, my friend--we’ll see, perhaps, by and by. I’m not in any hurry. I haven’t the slightest intention of working till I’m forced to.”