made his way into the room of the great potentate.

"Yes, Mr. Crocker," said Sir Boreas, "I have heard it. I read the
newspapers, no doubt, as well as you do."

"But it's true, Sir Boreas?"

"I heard it spoken of two or three days ago, Mr. Crocker, and I
believe it to be true."

"He was my friend, Sir Boreas; my particular friend. Isn't it a
wonderful thing,--that one's particular friend should turn out to
be Duca di Crinola! And he didn't know a word of it himself. I feel
quite sure that he didn't know a word of it."

"I really can't say, Mr. Crocker; but as you have now expressed your
wonder, perhaps you had better go back to your room and do your
work."

"He pretends he knew it three days ago!" said Crocker, as he returned
to his room. "I don't believe a word of it. He'd have written to me
had it been known so long ago as that. I suppose he had too many
things to think of, or he would have written to me."

"Go aisy, Crocker," said Geraghty.

"What do you mean by that? It's just the thing he would have done."

"I don't believe he ever wrote to you in his life," said Bobbin.

"You don't know anything about it. We were here together two years
before you came into the office. Mr. Jerningham knows that we were
always friends. Good heavens! Duca di Crinola! I tell you what it is,
Mr. Jerningham. If it were ever so, I couldn't do anything to-day.
You must let me go. There are mutual friends of ours to whom it is
quite essential that I should talk it over." Then he took his hat and
marched off to Holloway, and would have told the news to Miss Clara
Demijohn had he succeeded in finding that young lady at home. Clara
was at that moment discussing with Mrs. Duffer the wonderful fact
that Mr. Walker and not Lord Hampstead had been kicked and trodden to
pieces at Gimberley Green.

But even Aeolus, great as he was, expressed himself with some
surprise that afternoon to Mr. Jerningham as to the singular fortune
which had befallen George Roden. "I believe it to be quite true, Mr.
Jerningham. These wonderful things do happen sometimes."

"He won't stay with us, Sir Boreas, I suppose?"

"Not if he is Duca di Crinola. I don't think we could get on with a
real duke. I don't know how it will turn out. If he chooses to remain
an Englishman he can't take the title. If he chooses to take the
title he must be an Italian, then he'll have nothing to live on. My
belief is we shan't see him any more. I wish it had been Crocker wi