d that nobility in Calverley which follies veiled
but had not ever killed.

"Egad," said Robert Calverley; "I grant you that all this was
infamously done. I never authorized it. I shall kill Pevensey.
Indeed, I will do more," he added, with a flourish. "For I will
apologize to Umfraville, and this very night."

But Ufford was not disposed to levity. "Let us come to the point," he
sadly said. "Pevensey returned everything except the necklace which
Umfraville had intended to be his bridal gift. Pevensey conceded the
jest, in fine; and denied all knowledge of any necklace."

It was an age of accommodating morality. Calverley sketched a whistle,
and showed no other trace of astonishment.

"I see. The fool confided in the spendthrift. My dear, I understand.
In nature Pevensey gave the gems to some nymph of Sadler's Wells or
Covent Garden. For I was out of England. And so he capped his knavery
with insolence. It is an additional reason why Pevensey should not
live to scratch a gray head. It is, however, an affront to me that
Umfraville should have believed him. I doubt if I may overlook that,
Horace?"

"I question if he did believe. But, then, what help had he? This
Pevensey is an earl. His person as a peer of England is inviolable.
No statute touches him directly, because he may not be confined except
by the King's personal order. And it is tolerably notorious that
Pevensey is in Lord Bute's pay, and that our Scottish Mortimer, to do
him justice, does not permit his spies to be injured."

Now Mr. Calverley took snuff. The music without was now more audible,
and it had shifted to a merrier tune.

"I think I comprehend. Pevensey and I--whatever were our motives--have
committed a robbery. Pevensey, as the law runs, is safe. I, too, was
safe as long as I kept out of England. As matters stand, Lord
Umfraville intends to press a charge of theft against me. And I am in
disgrace with Bute, who is quite content to beat offenders with a
crooked stick. This confluence of two-penny accidents is annoying."

"It is worse than you know," my lord of Ufford returned. He opened the
door which led to the Venetian Chamber. A surge of music, of laughter,
and of many lights invaded the room wherein they stood. "D'ye see
those persons, just past Umfraville, so inadequately disguised as
gentlemen? They are from Bow Street. Lord Umfraville intends to
apprehend you here to-night."

"He has an eye for the pictu