“Ha!” said the Duke, with a somewhat important air, “this is strange; but still I have so many communications of different kinds—­what may it be, Mr. Brown?”

“It was, my lord,” replied Wilton, in a low voice, “a warning which I think it best to deliver, as, not knowing the gentleman’s name who gave it to me, I cannot tell whether it may be a mere piece of impertinence from somebody who is perhaps a stranger to your grace, or an intimation from a sincere friend—­”

“But the warning, the warning!” said the Duke, “pray, what was this warning?”

“It was,” replied Wilton, “a warning not to go to a meeting which you proposed to attend in the course of tomorrow.”

“Ha!” said the Duke, with a look of some surprise—­“did he say what meeting?”

“Yes, my lord,” replied Wilton—­“he said it was a meeting at the old King’s Head in Leadenhall Street, and he added that it would be dangerous for you to do so.”

“I will never shrink from personal danger, Mr. Brown,” said the Duke, holding up his head, and putting on a courageous look.  But the moment after, something seemed to strike him, and he added with a certain degree of hesitation, “But let me ask you, Mr. Brown, does my lord of Byerdale know this?—­You have not told Lord Sherbrooke?”

“Neither the one nor the other, my lord,” replied Wilton—­“I have mentioned the fact to nobody but yourself.”

“Pray, then, do not,” replied the Duke; “you will oblige me very much, Mr. Brown, by keeping this business secret.  I must certainly attend the meeting at four to-morrow, because I have pledged my word to it; but I shall enter into nothing that is dangerous or criminal, depend upon it—­”

The nobleman was going on; and it is impossible to say how much he might have told in regard to the meeting in question, if Wilton had not stopped him.

“I beg your pardon, my lord,” he said; “but allow me to remind you that I have no knowledge whatsoever of the views and intentions with which this meeting is to be held.  I shall certainly not mention the message I have brought your grace to any one, and having delivered it, must leave the rest to yourself, whose judgment in such matters must be far superior to mine.”

The Duke looked gratified, but moved on without reply, as the rest of his party were waiting at a little distance.  Wilton followed; and seeing the Duke and Lady Laura with Sir John and Lady Mary Fenwick into their carriages, he proceeded homeward with Lord Sherbrooke, neither of them interchanging a word till they had well nigh reached Wilton’s lodgings.  There, however, Lord Sherbrooke burst into a loud laugh, exclaiming—­

“Lack-a-day, Wilton, lack-a-day!  Here are you and I as silent and as meditative as two owls in a belfry:  you looking as wise as if you were a minister of state, and I as sorrowful as an unhappy lover, when, to say the truth, I am thinking of some deep stroke of policy, and you are meditating upon a fair maid’s bright eyes.  Get you gone, Wilton; get you gone, for a sentimental, lack-a-daisical shepherd!  Now could we but get poor old King James to come back, the way to a dukedom would be open before you in a fortnight.”