"Lord Godolphin!"
"Impossible!"
"Not so impossible as the fourth," Lord Marlborough answered, with a light laugh, in which courtesy, amusement, and a fine perception of the ridiculous were nicely mingled. "Can you not guess, Duke?"
But my lord, too prudent to suggest names in that connection, shook his head. "Who could?" he said, raising his eyebrows scornfully. "They might as well name me, as some you are mentioning."
Lord Marlborough laughed softly. "My very dear Duke," he said, "that is just what they are doing! They do name you. You are the fourth."
I believe that my lord had so little expected the answer that for a space he remained, staring at the speaker, in equal surprise and dismay. Then his indignation finding vent: "It is not possible!" he cried. "Even in the coffee-houses! And besides, if your story is true, my lord, the Duke of Devonshire alone knows what Sir John has discovered, and whom he has accused!"
Lord Marlborough pursed up his lips. "Things get known--strangely," he said. "For instance, the shadow which came between your Grace and His Majesty in '90--probably you supposed it to be known to the King only, or if to any besides, to Portland at most? On the contrary, there was scarce a knot of chatterers at Garraway's but whispered of your dinners with Middleton, and meetings with Montgomery, watched for the event, and gave the odds on St. Germain's in guessing."
The Earl spoke in his airiest manner, took snuff in medio, and with a carelessness that none could so well affect, avoided looking at his hearer. Nevertheless, the shaft went home. My lord, smitten between the joints of his harness, suffered all that a proud and sensitive man, apprised on a sudden that his dearest secrets were the property of the market-place, could suffer; and rage dissipating the composure which self-respect would fain have maintained, "My lord, this is going too far!" he gasped. "Who gave your lordship leave to--to touch on a matter which concerns only myself?"
"Simply this later matter," the Earl answered in a plain, matter-of-fact tone that at once sobered the Duke, and seemed to justify his own interference. "If there is anything at all in this rumour--if Sir John has really said anything, I take it that the old gossip is at the bottom of it."
The Duke stared before him with a troubled face; and did not answer. To some it might have seemed the most natural course to carry the war into the informant's country, and by a dry question or a pregnant word suggest that at least as good grounds existed for the imputation cast on him. But such a line of argument was beneath the dignity, which was never long wanting, to my lord; and he made no attempt to disturb the other's equanimity or question his triumph. After a time, however, "I beg your pardon," he said. "I forgot myself and spoke hastily. But he is a most impudent fellow!"