“And suppose Squire Dudley embark with him?” asked Lord Kemms.
“Squire Dudley will never come back to land,” was the significant reply; after which the pair rode on in silence.
At Mr. Raidsford’s gates they parted company.
“I shall see you again this evening, you know,” said my lord, waving his hand as he struck his horse’s flank and galloped off.
Mr. Raidsford looked after the retreating figure of his companion for a minute before entering his own gates, then he passed into his domain and rode slowly up the avenue, thinking as he rode.
“I wonder how he will decide?” was the burden of his mental discourse; “but I shall learn this evening.”
Now the reason he said so was, that Lord Kemms had promised to come over and dine with him tête-à-tête—the ladies of Mr. Raidsford’s family being absent.
CHAPTER X.
MR. BLACK GAINS HIS POINT.
Without in the least intending to do so, Lord Kemms had put a trump card into Mr. Black’s hand—the trump card, in fact, which enabled him to win his little game; and the way this undesirable result came about was as follows:
For days, Mr. Black had been dangling the speculative coral and bells before Squire Dudley’s eyes, amusing and interesting that grown-up child thereby. For days, the man who knew London off by heart, every turn in its dirty streets, every trick and move the dwellers in that great Babylon were up to, had been leading on towards the point he desired to reach, viz., that of enlisting Arthur in his company, of bribing him with his delusive shilling to serve the great King Mammon for ever and for aye!