“Clare is quite well, and I am hurrying home now to ride with her. I shall tell her that you asked after her.”
“And offer her my kindest remembrances.”
“What a relief!” exclaimed Lothair, when once more alone. “I thought I should have sunk into the earth when he first addressed me, and now I would not have missed this meeting for any consideration.”
He had not the courage to go into White’s. He was under a vague impression that the whole population of the metropolis, and especially those who reside in the sacred land, bounded on the one side by Piccadilly, and on the other by Pall Mall, were unceasingly talking of his scrapes and misadventures; but he met Lord Carisbrooke and Mr. Brancepeth.
“Ah! Lothair,” said Carisbrooke, “I do not think we have seen you this season—certainly not since Easter. What have you been doing with yourself?”
“You have been in Egypt?” said Mr. Brancepeth. “The duke was mentioning at White’s to-day that you had returned with his son and Lord St. Aldegonde.”
“And does it pay?” inquired Carisbrooke. “Egypt? What I have found generally in this sort of thing is, that one hardly knows what to do with one’s evenings.”
“There is something in that,” said Lothair, “and perhaps it applies to other countries besides Egypt. However, though it is true I did return with St. Aldegonde and Bertram, I have myself not been to Egypt.”
“And where did you pick them up?”
“At Jerusalem.”