"When did you ever see Lady Mitford before, sir?" asked Sir Charles haughtily.
"Ah! that's just it," replied Mr. Butler with a sniggering laugh. "I told you you'd led me a precious dance to find you, and so you had. Tony told me that you had regularly come to grief since you parted with him, and I had a regular hunt after you, in all sorts of lodging-houses and places. There are lots of my pals on the lookout for you now."
"Upon my soul, you're devilish kind to take all this trouble about me, Mr.--Butler. What your motive was I can't imagine."
"You'll know all in good time; I'm coming to that; and not 'Butler,' please: Mr. Effingham is my name just now; I'll tell you why by and by. Well, I couldn't get hold of you anyhow, and I thought you'd gone dead or something, when last night, as I was standing waiting to come out of the Parthenium, I heard the linkmen outside hollering 'Lady Mitford's carriage!' like mad. The name strikes on my ears, and I thought I'd wait and see her ladyship. Presently down came the lady we've just seen, leaning on the arm of a cove in a big black beard like a foreigner. 'No go,' says I, 'that's not my man;' and I says to a flunkey who was standing next to me, 'He's a rum 'un to look at, is her husband.' 'That's not her husband,' he says; 'this is Sir Charles coming now.' The name Charles and the figure being like struck me at once; so I took the flunkey into the public next door, and we had a glass, and he told me all about the old gent and his kids being drowned, and your coming in for the title. 'That's my man,' says I to myself; and I found out where you lived, and came straight on here this morning."
"And now that your prying and sneaking has been successful and you have found me, what do you want?"
"Ah! I thought you'd lose your temper; Tony always said you was hotheaded. What do I want! Well, to be very short and come to the point at once--money."
"I guessed as much."
"Yes, there's no denying it; I'm regularly stumped. I suppose you were surprised now to hear I wasn't flush, after seeing me so well got-up? But it's a deal of it dummy. These pins now,--Lowther Arcade! No ticker at the end of this guard; nothing but a key-look!" And he twitched a key out of his waistcoat-pocket. "My boots too are infernally leaky; and my hat has become quite limp from being perpetually damped and ironed. Yes, I want money badly."
"Look here, Mr.----"
"Effingham."