“Very good, your Grace,” said Francis, with a gratifying lack either of surprise or of interest.
The Duke pulled out his tablets from his pocket, found a pencil, and scrawled a brief message. “ Gideon, ” he wrote, “ ‘pray keep this bundle for me till I come to you this evening. Sale.”He tore off the leaf from his tablets, twisted it into a screw, and gave it to Francis. “And, Francis!” he said, rather shyly.
“Your Grace?”
“Do you think,” said the Duke, with a faint, rueful smile, “you can contrive to leave the house without Nettlebed’s seeing you, or Borrowdale, or—or anyone?”
“Certainly, your Grace,” said Francis woodenly.
“Thank you!” said the Duke, with real gratitude.
He would have been surprised had he been privileged to read the thoughts in his footman’s head. This impassive individual had not been a year in the employment of the gentlest-mannered master he had ever served without developing a lively sympathy for him. It was his opinion, freely expressed to his intimates over a heavy-wet, that there was never a lad so put-upon as the little Duke, and that it fair made a man’s blood boil to hear old Gundiguts and Muffin-face a-worriting him, not to mention my Lord Stiff-Rump, treating the lad to enough cross-and-jostle work to drive him into Bedlam. So far from not caring a fig for what became of the Duke, he was extremely curious to know what mischief he was up to, for mischief he would go bail it was. It would be a rare treat to slumguzzle Gundiguts and Muffin-face, and he was only sorry that his training forbade him to offer his master any further, assistance he might need in hoodwinking them and all the rest of the household, rump and stump.
The Duke drew his watch out, and glanced at it apprehensively. The menace of Captain Belper loomed large. He dived into his hanging-wardrobe, found a long, drab-coloured driving-coat with several shoulder-capes, a high collar, and large mother-of-pearl buttons; and a high-crowned beaver hat. He thought that he might perhaps be glad of a muffler, so he searched for that too. He could not think of anything else that he might need, so having assured himself that the visiting-card he had wrested from his unwilling cousin Matthew was safely tucked into hispocket-book, he left his room, and walked sedately down the great staircase.
The porter, who was sitting in a large leather chair by the front door, got up as soon as he saw him and told him that a package had just been delivered at the house from Joseph Manton’s. This instantly put the Duke in mind of the absolute necessity of taking a good pair of pistols with him upon his hazardous adventure. In spite of the danger of being caught by Captain Belper, he was quite unable to resist the temptation of carrying Manton’s package into the library, and unwrapping his purchase. The pistols, a really beautiful pair, lay snugly in their leather case, looking very slender and wicked. The Duke lifted one from its velvet bed, and tested its balance lovingly. No one could expect him to leave such peerless acquisitions behind! He slid the case into his capacious pocket, and the ball and powder thoughtfully provided by Mr. Manton in another pocket, telling himself that Baldock would be the very place for a little practice.
He went out into the hall again to find that Borrowdale had sailed into it from his quarters at the back of the house, attended rather regally by two footmen. Borrowdale wished to know if his Grace would be dining at home, and—with a glance at his Grace’s top-boots—whether his Grace desired his horse to be brought round.