"Don't go," said Uncle David, "we shall want you. What's the matter?"
"Sir Reginald has been took bad with his foot again, please, Miss."
"Only pain, please, Sir, in the same place."
"All the better it should fix itself well in his foot. You need not be uneasy about it, Alice. You and your maid must be in my cab, which is at the hall door, in five minutes. Take leave of no one, and don't waste time over finery; just put a few things up, and take your dressing-case; and you and your maid are coming to town with me. Is my brother in the drawing-room?"
"No, Sir, please; he is in his own room."
"Are the gentlemen who dined still here?"
"Two left, Sir, when Sir Reginald took ill; but Lord Wynderbroke remains."
"Sir Reginald sent for him, please, Sir--just as I came up--to his room."
"Very good, then I shall find them both together. Now, Alice, I must find you and your maid in the cab in five minutes. I shall get your leave from Reginald, and you order the fellow to drive down to the little church gate in the village close by, and I'll walk after and join you there in a few minutes. Lose no time."
With this parting charge, Uncle David ran down the stairs, and met Lord Wynderbroke at the foot of them, returning from his visit of charity to Sir Reginald's room.
"Lord Wynderbroke!" said Uncle David, and bowed rather ceremoniously.
Lord Wynderbroke, a little surprised, extended two fingers and said, "How d'ye do, Mr. Arden?" and smiled drily, and then seemed disposed to pass on.
"I beg your pardon, Lord Wynderbroke," said David Arden, "but would you mind giving me a few minutes? I have something you may think a little important to say, and if you will allow me, I'll say it in this room"--he indicated the half-open door of the dining-room, in which there was still some light--"I shall not detain you long."
The urbane and smiling peer looked on him for a moment--rather darkly--with a shrewd eye; and he said, still smiling,--
"Certainly, Mr. Arden; but at this hour, and being about to write a note, you will see that I have very little time indeed--I'm very sorry."
He was speaking stiffly, and any one might have seen that he suspected nothing very agreeable as the result of Mr. Arden's communication.