I have said that John Eames was at his office punctually at twelve;
but an incident had happened before his arrival there very important
in the annals which are now being told,--so important that it
is essentially necessary that it should be described with some
minuteness of detail.

Lord De Guest, in the various conversations which he had had with
Eames as to Lily Dale and her present position, had always spoken
of Crosbie with the most vehement abhorrence. "He is a damned
blackguard," said the earl, and the fire had come out of his round
eyes as he spoke. Now the earl was by no means given to cursing and
swearing, in the sense which is ordinarily applied to these words.
When he made use of such a phrase as that quoted above, it was to be
presumed that he in some sort meant what he said; and so he did, and
had intended to signify that Crosbie by his conduct had merited all
such condemnation as was the fitting punishment for blackguardism of
the worst description.

"He ought to have his neck broken," said Johnny.

"I don't know about that," said the earl. "The present times have
become so pretty behaved that corporal punishment seems to have gone
out of fashion. I shouldn't care so much about that, if any other
punishment had taken its place. But it seems to me that a blackguard
such as Crosbie can escape now altogether unscathed."

"He hasn't escaped yet," said Johnny.

"Don't you go and put your finger in the pie and make a fool of
yourself," said the earl. If it had behoved any one to resent in any
violent fashion the evil done by Crosbie, Bernard Dale, the earl's
nephew, should have been the avenger. This the earl felt, but under
these circumstances he was disposed to think that there should be no
such violent vengeance. "Things were different when I was young," he
said to himself. But Eames gathered from the earl's tone that the
earl's words were not strictly in accordance with his thoughts, and
he declared to himself over and over again that Crosbie had not yet
escaped.

He got into the train at Guestwick, taking a first-class ticket,
because the earl's groom in livery was in attendance upon him. Had
he been alone he would have gone in a cheaper carriage. Very weak in
him, was it not? little also, and mean? My friend, can you say that
you would not have done the same at his age? Are you quite sure that
you would not do the same now that you are double his age? Be that as
it may, Johnny Eames did that fool