"My rascal of a tiger has lost it," answered Egerton. "But I know that the baronet seldom goes abroad without the usual implements."
"Ah! you dog!" chuckled Sir Rupert, as if mightily amused by this sally. "You are, however, quite right; and I do not think that any fashionable man about town should forget to provide himself with the means of the most aristocratic of all innocent recreations. Upon my honour, that is my opinion."
"Just what my friend the Duke of Highgate said the other day—even to the very words," exclaimed Dunstable.
"How singular!" observed the baronet, as he produced a box and a pair of dice.
"By the by, Dunstable," said Egerton, "you promised to introduce me to his Grace."
"So I did, my dear boy—and so I will. Let me see—I shall see the Duke on Monday, and I will make an appointment for him to join us at dinner somewhere."
"The very thing," said Egerton: "I shall be quite delighted—particularly if his Grace be one of your own sort."
"Oh! he is—to the utmost," returned Dunstable, who did not perceive a lurking irony beneath the tranquillity of Egerton's manner.
"I am glad of that," continued the young man. "If I only knew three or four more such gay, dashing, good-hearted fellows as you all are, I should be as contented as possible. By the way, Chichester, I will tell you a very odd thing."
"Indeed! what is it?" inquired that gentleman.