When the whole party reassembled at dinner, L'Estrange's chair was again vacant. No notice was taken of this till the meal was more than half finished, and still the chair remained unoccupied, when the Earl remarked, "Captain L'Estrange is very unpunctual at his meals; in England we consider it a breach of the eleventh commandment."
"He wants Sir Henry Maynard to discipline him again, by Jove!"
"You need not speak, John," said Lady Florence. "Do you remember our joke at your always coming in late to dinner, and always stumbling into the room, with an oath, over the wolf-skin at the door."
"Enough to make most fellows swear, catching one's spurs in the d—d fur. I am glad it is gone now."
"Andrew," said the Earl, "send a footman to Captain L'Estrange's room; and tell him dinner is almost done."
The servant returned shortly with the reply, that the Captain was not in his room; nor had he been in the castle since morning.
"Then I'll be bound he has ridden off to Dalkeith, or Newbattle, and been asked to dinner," said Sir Richard. "He might have let me know, or sent a man to say so, at least."
The evening passed away as usual, and it was not till the Earl rose from the table in the smoking-room shortly before midnight that the Captain's absence was again alluded to.
"This passes forbearance," said the Earl, rising; "twelve o'clock, and my guest unaccounted for: this is either a strange breach of manners, or there is more in it than I imagine. Do none of you gentlemen know where he went to; has no one seen him?"
"I saw him, my Lord, in the garden about half an hour after breakfast," said Mr. Ravensworth.