'And the reason of the quarrel?'
'He took objection to a few words I spoke last night.'
'About a ballad? I heard the words.'
'I told him that he would find a friend of mine waiting at Burton's Coffee-house this morning, and I doubt if many friends of mine will be seen abroad to-day.'
Montague rose from the bed.
'I will not deny,' he said, 'that there are services I should have preferred to render you. But I will go to Burton's, on one condition, Mr. Wogan--that you do not stir from this house until I come back to you. There's an ill wind blowing which might occasion you discomfort if you went abroad.'
This he said with some significance.
'It catches at one's throat, I dare say,' replied Wogan, taking his meaning. 'I have a tender sort of delicate throat in some weathers.'
Colonel Montague walked to Burton's, at the corner of King Street in St. James's. The coffeehouse buzzed with the news of Mr. Kelly's arrest, and Colonel Montague saw many curious faces look up from their news-sheets and whisper together as he entered. In a corner of the room sat Lord Sidney Beauclerk, with a man whom Montague had remarked at Lady Oxford's rout the night before.
Lord Sidney arose as Montague approached and bowed stiffly.