Whether the Duke, having heard Sir John's story and marked his manner of telling it, had prejudged the cause, or thought that my lord over-acted surprise, he did not immediately answer; and when he did speak, his tone was dry, though courteous. "Well, of course--it may be Sir John who is mad," he said.
"D----n Sir John," my lord answered, sitting up in the coach and fairly facing his companion. "You do not mean to tell me that you believe this story of a cock and a bull, and a--a----"
"A ring," said the Duke of Devonshire, quietly.
"Well?"
"Well, Duke, it is this way," the Lord Steward replied. "Sir John has something to say about three others. Lord Marlborough, Ned Russell, and Godolphin. And what he says about them I know in the main to be true. Therefore----"
"You infer that he is telling the truth about me?" cried my lord, fuming, yet covering his rage with a decent appearance since a hundred eyes were on them as they drove slowly round in the glass coach.
"Not altogether. There are other things."
"What other things?"
"The talk there was about your Grace and Middleton at the time of your resignation."
My lord groaned. "All the world knows that, it seems," he said. "And should know that I have never denied it."