He went away to bed, telling me to be prudent, and mind the colonel’s counsel until he returned from the North.

CHAPTER XIV

THE VOLTE COUPE

I was of a serious mind to take the advice.  To prove this I called for my wrap-rascal and cane, and for a fellow with a flambeau to light me.  But just then the party arrived from the assembly.  I was tempted, and I sat down again in a corner of the room, resolved to keep a check upon myself, but to stay awhile.

The rector was the first in, humming a song, and spied me.

“Ho!” he cried, “will you drink, Richard?  Or do I drink with you?”

He was already purple with wine.

“God save me from you and your kind!” I replied.

“’Sblood! what a devil’s nest of fireworks!” he exclaimed, as he went off down the room, still humming, to where the rest were gathered.  And they were soon between bottle and stopper, and quips a-coursing.  There was the captain of the Thunderer, Collinson by name, Lord Comyn and two brother officers, Will Fotheringay, my cousin Philip, openly pleased to be found in such a company, and some dozen other toadeaters who had followed my Lord a-chair and a-foot from the ball, and would have tracked him to perdition had he chosen to go; and lastly Tom Swain, leering and hiccoughing at the jokes, in such a beastly state of drunkenness as I had rarely seen him.  His Lordship recognized me and smiled, and was pushing his chair back, when something Collinson said seemed to restrain him.

I believe I was the butt of more than one jest for my aloofness, though I could not hear distinctly for the noise they made.  I commanded some French cognac, and kept my eye on the rector, and the sight of him was making me dangerous.

I forgot the advice I had received, and remembered only the months he had goaded me.  And I was even beginning to speculate how I could best pick a quarrel with him on any issue but politics, when an unexpected incident diverted me.  Of a sudden the tall, ungainly form of Percy Singleton filled the doorway, wrapped in a greatcoat.  He swept the room at a glance, and then strode rapidly toward the corner where I sat.

“I had thought to find you here,” he said, and dropped into a chair beside me.  I offered him wine, but he refused.

“Now,” he went on, “what has Patty done?”

“What have I done that I should be publicly insulted?” I cried.

“Insulted!” says he, “and did she insult you?  She said nothing of that.”

“What brings you here, then?” I demanded.

“Not to talk, Richard,” he said quietly, “’tis no time tonight.  I came to fetch you home.  Patty sent me.”

Patty sent him!  Why had Patty sent him?  But this I did not ask, for I felt the devil within me.

“We must first finish this bottle,” said I, offhand, “and then I have a little something to be done which I have set my heart upon.  After that I will go with you.”