ce even in this inner room, for your
filibustering ways? Go and bluster out yonder, if bluster you must.
Speak a single word of insolence to me--" and here the blue eyes
seemed to flash fire--"and I will have every one of you ducked in
the Thames three times ere you take a step from hence! Now, will
you go quietly?"

It was strange to see the change which came over these young rakes
the moment that the clear, cold tones of Lord Claud's voice fell
upon their ears. They stopped, they cringed, they looked one at the
other, and then back at him, as a whipped dog looks at the master
who rates him. Thirsty Thring, who had drunk the most deeply, and
who was in consequence most filled with Dutch courage, ventured
once to look as though he were about to resist, or to dispute the
mandate of Lord Claud; but no sooner had he provoked that flash of
the eyes, than he too was cringing more humbly than his fellows.

To the great amazement of Tom, they took up their hats, and slunk
from the room like so many whipped curs. He heard them the next
minute chartering a wherry to take them to the shore once more.

Lord Claud had taken up his paper again, but meeting Tom's bashful
glance of mingled gratitude and admiration, he remarked to him with
a quiet smile:

"You are a stranger to London and its sons, lad; take this bit of
advice from one who knows both well: Never let any man badger and
insult you. Take no word from any; but return it with a blow or a
sword thrust. Make your name feared--it is the surest road to
success. Tavern and street brawls are taken little note of by the
administrators of the law; but better a few weeks' discipline in
Newgate, than to be the butt and victim of a set of vulgar street
swaggerers and swashbucklers such as those worthies we have just
seen depart."

Tom had risen and had slowly approached Lord Claud. Now that the
hour for the play had all but come, the room was thinning of its
guests. He felt more courage to speak to this strange being, who
seemed so great a personage.

"I thank you, sir, for sending them away. I will seek to follow
your good counsel in the future."

And then, after a moment's hesitation, he added, "Sir, are there
more than one Lord Claud in this great city of London?"

"Not that I am aware of," answered the other, with a lighting of
the eyes. "Some would tell you that one was enough even for so vast
a city and realm as this!"

"Because," continued Tom, "I was charged with