e
no man's honours." He shook Wogan by the hand as he spoke, and he had
spoken with an extraordinary warmth of admiration. Gaydon could do no
less than follow his companion's example, though there was a shade of
embarrassment in his manner of assenting. It was not that he had any
envy of Wogan, or any desire to rob him of a single tittle of his due
credit. There was nothing mean in Gaydon's nature, but here was a
halving of Clementina's protectors, and he could not stifle a suspicion
that the best man of the four to leave behind was really Charles Wogan
himself. Not a word, however, of this could he say, and so he nodded his
assent to Misset's proposal.

"It is I, then, who stay behind with O'Toole and the courier," he said.
"Misset has a wife; the lot evidently falls to me. We will make a shift
somehow or another to keep the fellow quiet till sundown to-morrow,
which time should see you out of danger." He unbuckled the sword from
his waist and laid it on the table, and that simple action somehow
touched Wogan to the heart. He slipped his arm into Gaydon's and said
remorsefully,--

"Dick, I do hate to leave you, you and Lucius. I swept you into the
peril, you two, my friends, and now I leave you in the thick of it to
find a way out for yourselves. But there is no remedy, is there? I shall
not rest until I see you both again. Goodbye, Lucius." He looked at
O'Toole sprawling with outstretched legs upon his groaning chair. "My
six feet four," said he, turning to Gaydon; "you must give me the
passport. Have a good care of him, Dick;" and he gripped O'Toole
affectionately by the arms for a second, and then taking the passport
hurried from the room. Gaydon had seldom seen Wogan so moved.

The berlin was brought round to the door; the Princess, rosy with sleep,
stepped into it; Wogan had brought with him a muff, and he slipped it
over Clementina's feet to keep her warm during the night; Misset took
Gaydon's place, and the postillion cracked his whip and set off towards
Trent. Gaydon, sitting before the fire in the parlour, heard the wheels
grate upon the road; he had a vision of the berlin thundering through
the night with a trail of sparks from the wheels; and he wondered
whether Misset was asleep or merely leaning back with his eyes shut, and
thus visiting incognito Woman's fairy-land of dreams. However, Gaydon
consoled himself with the reflection that it was none of his business.

CHAPTER XVII

But Gaydon was