“I thank you, sir, for sending them away.  I will seek to follow your good counsel in the future.”

And then, after a moment’s hesitation, he added, “Sir, are there more than one Lord Claud in this great city of London?”

“Not that I am aware of,” answered the other, with a lighting of the eyes.  “Some would tell you that one was enough even for so vast a city and realm as this!”

“Because,” continued Tom, “I was charged with a message for one Lord Claud, and I marvel that it can be your worshipful self, for he that sent it was a strange man to speak of himself as your master.”

A laugh shone in the dark blue eyes of the other.

“In sooth I call no man my master,” he answered lightly; “but tell me the name of him who sent this message, and I shall know if it be for me or not.”

“He called himself Captain Jack,” answered Tom, “and I met with him betwixt my home in Essex and this city.  He was dwelling in the heart of the great Forest of Epping.”

Upon Lord Claud’s face there had come a look of vivid interest and pleasure; yet he laid a finger upon his lips, as though to caution Tom, who, indeed, had spoken in a tone too low to be heard by any one else.

“Any news of or from Captain Jack is right welcome in mine ears,” he said; “but this is not the time or place in which to speak of such things.  Come tomorrow morning early to my lodgings in the Mall—­any man will direct you to them—­and there we will speak at ease.  Forget not—­tomorrow morning by ten o’ the clock, ere my levee has begun.  I shall expect you.  Farewell, good youth, and keep your distance with those gentlemen you have just left.  They would like to spit you as a goose is spitted, but I would see you again ere that consummation be achieved!”

He nodded to Tom, and took up his paper again; and Tom, turning round, encountered the amazed glance of Harry, who had come in to find him, and discovered him in friendly converse with the greatest man of all the company.

“How now, Tom!  But you have a mettlesome spirit after all, if you can scrape acquaintance with Lord Claud.  I have been in his company many a time, but never a word has he vouchsafed to me.  And are you invited to his lodgings?  Surely my ears must have deceived me!”

“In sooth he asked me, but it is only to hear a message I chance to bear from an old friend of his.  Harry, tell me who is this Lord Claud?  Men seem to worship the ground he treads upon, and yet to fear him, too, more than a little.”

It was after they had reached the streets again that Tom put this question, and Harry answered it by a knowing shake of the head.

“I should have the makings of a fortune in me,” he answered, “if I could tell who Lord Claud was.  There be many fine ladies, and curled darlings of fashion, who would give much to know that secret.”

“But if he be a lord—­”

“Ah, indeed—­a wise ‘if’!  He is no more a lord than I am!  That much I can tell you.  But the name fits, and he wears it with a grace.  There be ladies in high places, too, who would not be averse to share it with him, and be my Lady Claud, even though no other name might be hers.”