He was just going on to another, when the door again opened, and a tall, graceful young man, apparently of one or two and twenty years of age, entered the room, and advanced towards the table which Green had left vacant.  His whole manner and appearance was totally different from that of the persons by whom the room had been previously tenanted, and a number of inquiring eyes were naturally turned towards him.  Green looked him full in the face without taking the slightest notice; nor did the stranger show any sign of remarking him, except by brushing against him as he passed, and then turning round and begging his pardon, while at the same time he laid the finger of his right hand upon a diamond ring which he wore upon the little finger of the left.  He then advanced straight to the vacant table, as we have said, and sat down, looking towards a drawer who stood at the other end of the room, and saying—­

“Bring me some claret.”

At the same moment, Green advanced to the table, and bowing his head with the air and grace of a distinguished gentleman, said—­

“I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that this is my table; but there is perfectly room at it for us both, and if you will permit me the honour, I will join you in your wine.  Shall we say a bottle of good Burgundy, which will be better than cold claret on this chilly night?”

“With all my heart,” replied Wilton Brown, for we need hardly tell the reader that it was he who had last entered the room at the Nag’s Head; and Green, turning to the drawer, said, “This gentleman and I will take a bottle of Burgundy.  Let it be that which the landlord knows of.”

“I understand, sir—­I understand,” replied the drawer, “last Monday night’s;” and Wilton and his companion were soon busily discussing their wine, and talking together, upon various indifferent things, in a voice which could be heard at the neighbouring tables.  Green spoke with ease and grace, and had altogether so much the tone of a well-bred man of the world, that he might have passed for such in the highest society in the realm.  Wilton found the task a more difficult one, for his mind was eagerly bent upon other subjects.  He laboured to play his part to the best, however; and Green, laughing, showed him how to drink his wine out of goblets, as he called it; so that the matter was brought to a conclusion sooner than he had ventured to hope.

As the bottle drew to its close, Green took an opportunity of saying, in a low voice, “Come with me when I go out.”

Wilton answered in the same tone, “Must you not make some excuse?”

“Oh, I will show you one—­I will show you one!” exclaimed Green, aloud—­“if you have never seen one, I will show you one within five minutes from this time.  I have but to speak a word to some of my friends at these different tables, and then you shall come with me.”

This was heard all through the room; and Wilton seeing that the excuse was already made, said no more, but, “Very well, I am ready when you like.”