“Indeed!” said the Earl.  “Who could that be?”

“He called himself Captain Churchill,” replied Wilton.  “I do not mean to say, my lord, that I believe such was his real name; for I do not:  but I never saw Captain Churchill at all; and I never saw this gentleman till the moment when he came to my aid and rescued me, with the assistance of another, from the hands of as desperate a set of men as I ever met in my life, and who would certainly have murdered me had it not been for his arrival.  I have a report to make to your lordship upon all Mr. Arden’s proceedings, who, notwithstanding your most positive commands to obey me in all things, has refused to obey me in anything, and by the delays he has occasioned, and the obstructions he has thrown in my way, very nearly prevented me from effecting the liberation of Lady Laura at all.”

“Your lordship will believe what you choose,” replied Arden, in a saucy tone.  “All I mean to say is, I am sure that gentleman was not Captain Churchill; and so you will find, if you inquire.  Whoever he was, Mr. Brown aided his escape, and prevented me from doing my duty.”

“Your duty, sir, was to obey Mr. Brown,” replied the Earl, sternly; “for that I shall take care that you are punished; and if it should prove that this gentleman was really Captain Churchill, you shall be dismissed from your office.  You will attend here again at two o’clock, by which time I shall have written to Captain Churchill, to know whether he was the person present or not.—­Now leave the room.”

Arden slunk doggedly away, seeing that Wilton’s star happened to be in the ascendant.  Had he known how much it was so, however, having often heard the Earl speak sharply and discourteously to the young gentleman, he would have been more surprised even than he was at the change which had taken place.  The moment he was gone, and the door closed, the Earl again shook Wilton by the hand.

“You have accomplished your task most brilliantly, Wilton,” he said, “and I shall take care that you reap the reward of your diligence and activity, by any effort that depends upon me; but from all that I have seen, and heard, and know, you are likely to obtain, from the very act itself, far higher recompences than any that I could bestow.  You are indeed a fortunate young man.”

“I am fortunate in your lordship’s approbation,” replied Wilton; “but I see not why you should call me so in any other respect, except, indeed, in being so fortunate as to effect this young lady’s liberation.”

“In that very respect,” replied the Earl, with a look full of meaning.  “Good heavens! my dear Wilton, are you blind?  If you are so, I am not; and at your age, certainly I should not have been blind to my own advantage.  You think, perhaps, that because Lady Laura has refused to marry Sherbrooke, and broken off the proposed alliance between our families, it would make me angry to find she had placed her