He admitted the destruction of the papers. "I never
cared for him again when I saw him so knocked out of time by an old
woman," said Clara afterwards.

"What am I to do about the lodgings?" asked Crocker weeping.

"Tear 'em up," said Mrs. Demijohn. "Tear 'em up. Only send back the
clock and the harmonium."

Crocker in his despair looked about everywhere for assistance. It
might be that Aeolus would be softer-hearted than Clara Demijohn.
He wrote to Lord Persiflage, giving him a very full account of the
affair. The papers, he said, had in fact been actually torn by
accident. He was afraid of "the Duca," or he would have applied to
him. "The Duca," no doubt had been his most intimate friend,--so he
still declared,--but in such an emergency he did not know how to
address "the Duca." But he bethought himself of Lord Hampstead, of
that hunting acquaintance, with whom his intercourse had been so
pleasant and so genial, and he made a journey down Hendon. Lord
Hampstead at this time was living there all alone. Marion Fay had
been taken back to Pegwell Bay, and her lover was at the old house
holding intercourse almost with no one. His heart just now was very
heavy with him. He had begun to believe that Marion would in truth
never become his wife. He had begun to think that she would really
die, and that he would never have had the sad satisfaction of calling
her his own. All lightness and brightness had gone from him, all
the joy which he used to take in argument, all the eagerness of his
character,--unless the hungry craving of unsatisfied love could still
be called an eagerness.

He was in this condition when Crocker was brought out to him in the
garden where he was walking. "Mr. Crocker," he said, standing still
in the pathway and looking into the man's face.

"Yes, my lord; it's me. I am Crocker. You remember me, my lord, down
in Cumberland?"

"I remember you,--at Castle Hautboy."

"And out hunting, my lord,--when we had that pleasant ride home from
Airey Force."

"What can I do for you now?"

"I always do think, my lord, that there is nothing like sport to
cement affection. I don't know how you feel about it, my lord."

"If there is anything to be said--perhaps you will say it."

"And there's another bond, my lord. We have both been looking for the
partners of our joys in Paradise Row."

"If you have anything to say, say it."

"And as for your friend, my lord, the,--the--. You know whom I mean.
If I have