“I am very glad to meet any friend of Andrew Forbes,” said the stranger, raising his hat with a most formal bow. “I know Sir Robert slightly.”
As he replaced his hat and smiled pleasantly to the salute Frank gave in return, he took a biscuit from his pocket, and began to break it in very small pieces, when, apparently without any idea of its looking childish, Andrew took out his piece of bread, and after a moment’s hesitation Frank did the same, the ducks in his Majesty’s “canal,” as he termed it, benefiting largely by the result.
“Any news?” said Andrew, after this had been going on for some minutes, and as he spoke he turned his head and looked fixedly at Mr Selby.
“No, nothing whatever; everything is as dull as can be,” was the reply, and the fixed look was returned.
There seemed to be nothing in these words of an exciting nature, and Frank was intent upon a race between two green-headed drakes for a piece of crust which he had jerked out to a considerable distance; but all the same Andrew Forbes drew a deep breath, and his face flushed up. Then he glanced sharply at Frank, and looked relieved to find how his attention was diverted.
“Er—er—it is strange what a little news there is stirring nowadays,” he said, huskily.
“Yes, very, is it not?” replied their new companion; “but I should have thought that you gentlemen, living as you do in the very centre of London life, would have had plenty to amuse you.”
“Oh no,” said Andrew, with a forced laugh. “Ours is a terrible humdrum life at the Palace, so bad that Gowan there is always wanting to go out into the country to find sport, and as he cannot and I cannot, we are glad to come out here and feed the ducks.”
“Well,” said the stranger gravely, jerking out a fresh piece of biscuit, “it is a nice, calm, and agreeable diversion. I like to come here for the purpose on Wednesday and Friday afternoons about this time. It is harmless, Forbes.”
“Very,” said the youth, with another glance at Frank; but he was breaking a piece of crust for another throw, and another meaning look passed between the two, Forbes seeming to question the stranger with his eyes, and to receive for answer an almost imperceptible nod.