"Have you known Mr Selby very long?" he asked.

"Depends upon what you call long."

"Do you like him?"

"Oh yes, he's a splendid fellow. So are his friends splendid fellows.
You'll like them too. Thorough gentlemen. Most of them of good birth."

Frank was silent again; but he was becoming very observant now, as he
noticed that, though they were going by a different way, they were
tending toward the scene of their adventure, and the fight rose vividly
before his imagination. But all was perfectly quiet and orderly around.
There were plenty of people about, but all apparently engaged in
business matters, though all disposed to turn and look after the
well-dressed youths, who seemed foreign to their surroundings.

It was a relief to Frank to find that there were no signs of an idling
crowd, and he was congratulating himself upon that fact when, after
increasing his pace as if annoyed at being noticed, Andrew said sharply:

"Walk a bit faster. How the oafs do stare!"

"Why, Drew!" cried Frank, suddenly checking himself, as his companion,
who had led him to the spot from the opposite side, suddenly turned into
the court where they had been wedged in the crowd.

"What is it?" said his companion impatiently. "Come along, quick!"

"But this is the place where they were fighting."

"Of course; I know it is. What of it? They're not fighting now."

As he spoke he was glancing rapidly up and down the court, and with his
arm well through that of Frank he urged him on toward the door of the
large house.

Frank was annoyed at having, as he felt, been deceived as to their
destination, and ready to hang back. But he felt that it would seem
cowardly, and that Andrew's silence had been from a feeling that if he
had said where they were coming he would have met with a refusal, while
the next moment the boy found himself in the passage of the house.

A burly man, in a big snuff-coloured coat, confronted them, arranging a
very curly wig as he came, but smiled, bowed, and drew back to allow the
visitors to pass; and with a supercilious nod Andrew led on, apparently
quite familiar with the place, and turned up a broad, well-worn
staircase, quite half of whose balusters were perfectly new and
unpainted, evidently replacing those broken out for weapons during the
fight.

The sight of these and their suggestions did not increase Frank's desire
to be there, but he went on up.

"For this time only," he said to himself;