“Is my Lord Burleigh abroad yet, master?” asked Bernard, without deigning any answer to his inquiry.
“Oh!” said the porter, opening his hands and rubbing them together: “Ah! truly!”
“Thou wilt have no fee from me,” pursued Bernard. “See here!” And thrusting his hand within his vest, he drew forth a slip of paper, and held it under the porter’s eye. Glancing at the unfolded paper, that person, to his great dismay, read thereon these words:
“The bearer is in my employ.
“W. Burleigh.”
His whole manner altered in a moment.
“Fair Sir,” he said, in a fawning tone, “my Lord is up, but not abroad yet. Wilt please thee to enter, Sir? I will have thee conducted to his presence incontinently.”
Bernard, without a word of reply, pushed through the gateway, and passed up the avenue towards the house. The porter followed him, but, on their arrival before the house, passed to the front, and led the way into a spacious hall. There, as he expected, he encountered one of the household servants, whom he charged to lead Bernard to their master.
“Tell my Lord that one Master Gray would speak with him,” said Bernard.
The servant, warned of Bernard’s influence by the recommendation of the porter, and awed by his authoritative bearing, promised compliance, and passed to his master’s presence with that view. In a few minutes he returned, and informed Bernard, in the same respectful manner, that his master would see him, and waited his approach in an upper chamber. Bernard, with a taciturnity not unusual to him, and which he maintained on the most inopportune occasions, signed to him to lead the way; and thus instructed, the servant marshalled him up the stairs to the minister’s closet. There, stepping back to the gallery without, he left him and the minister to themselves.