‘Then I congratulate you,’ was the quick rejoinder; ‘it is now obvious to me that she is enamoured of you. That her affections were bespoken in some direction from the first was plain from the manner in which she received my advances.’
‘Your advances?’
‘Yes; you have heard of the power of the human eye over the brute creation. Well, that is nothing to the effects of this,’ he tapped his spy-glass, ‘upon the sensibilities of angelic woman. I have never known it fail, except when their minds are preoccupied with another object. I am writing an epic, to be entitled “The Spy-glass,” the views of which, though founded on personal experience, will be quite novel. And that reminds me, how often have we not read our poems to one another? Why have you never come to see me since I have been at the “Blue Boar?”’
‘My dear fellow, as you heard my father say—— ‘ began William Henry persuasively.
‘Tut, tut, I mean your real reason,’ put in the other scornfully. ‘We used to meet often enough when the rhinoceros did not dance, when he was very far from dancing. Yet now—— ‘
‘The fact is, my dear fellow,’ interrupted William Henry earnestly, ‘there is a reason.’
‘I have reached that point already without a guide,’ observed the other drily.
‘The truth is—— ‘ pursued William Henry.
Mr. Reginald Talbot took the pipe from his mouth and laughed aloud. Certainly no diplomatic explanation could have been conducted under greater difficulties. ‘Some people yearn for fame, my dear Erin,’ he said; ‘to others it is very undesirable to be well known, even by a single individual.’
‘If you imagine I wish to deceive you, Talbot, you are quite wrong,’ said William Henry firmly, ‘but it is true that I cannot be so frank with you as I could wish. I have a secret which is not my own, or you may be sure that you should share it. Listen.’ Then he told him the whole story of his acquaintance with the Templar and its singular result. Talbot listened to him with great attention.