“Thorn has—I think. You would know him again Richard?”
“Know him!” passionately echoed Richard Hare.
“Were you aware that a contest for the membership is going on at West Lynne?”
“I saw it in the newspapers. Carlyle against Sir Francis Levison. I say, Barbara, how could he think of coming here to oppose Carlyle after his doing with Lady Isabel?”
“I don’t know,” said Barbara. “I wonder that he should come here for other reasons also. First of all, Richard, tell me how you came to know Sir Francis Levison. You say you did know him, and that you had seen him with Thorn.”
“So I do know him,” answered Richard. “And I saw him with Thorn twice.”
“Know him by sight only, I presume. Let me hear how you came to know him.”
“He was pointed out to me. I saw him walk arm-in-arm with a gentleman, and I showed them to the waterman at the cab-stand hard by. ‘Do you know that fellow?’ I asked him, indicating Thorn, for I wanted to come at who he really is—which I didn’t do. ‘I don’t know that one,’ the old chap answered, ‘but the one with him is Levison the baronet. They are often together—a couple of swells they looked.’”
“And that’s how you got to know Levison?”
“That was it,” said Richard Hare.