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"Exactly. That is what I tell Horace." "I don't care!" the boy said stoutly. "He was starving, and we were brutes not to give him something. The Mater'll be sorry for it some day. I know it. I can feel it." Captain Hindford began to talk about French plays rather hastily. When Mrs. Errington went up to the drawing-room, Horace suddenly said to the Captain
But from each in turn he drew back, occasionally followed by a muttered oath or a sharp ejaculation. "I bet he'll be somewhere by the Serpentine," the boy said to Hindford. And they walked on till at length they reached the black sheet of water closely muffled in the night. "We met him somewhere just here," Horace said. "I know," Hindford rejoined. "He got up from this seat.
"Look here, Errington," Hindford said to the boy that night as he parted from him in Park Lane, "don't tell your mother anything of this." "But but, Hindford " "Come, now, you take my advice. Keep a quiet tongue in your head." "But perhaps it was her fault; it was if we'd given the poor chap something he'd " "Probably. That's just the reason I don't want you to tell Mrs. Errington anything of it.
"A great mistake, Captain Hindford," she said drily. Horace looked at his mother with a sort of bright, boyish curiosity. Although he knew so well what her nature was like, it did not cease to surprise him. "You think so?" said the Captain. "Well, perhaps, you're right; I don't know. Daresay I've been a fool.
But the servant added that letters sent there might have to wait for two or three days, as his master's immediate plans were unsettled. Horace, however, went to the nearest telegraph-office and wired to Hindford "Let me off promise; urgent. Then, having done all he could, he went back to Park Lane.
Hindford and Horace could have seen many piteous sights had they cared to as they walked down the long path by the Row. The boy peered at each seat as they passed, and once or twice hesitated by some thin and tragic figure, stretched in uneasy slumber or bowed in staring reverie face to face with the rainy night.
"Well, Mater, what on earth do you know about charity?" Captain Hindford began to look embarrassed, and endeavoured to change the subject, but Horace suddenly burst out into the story of the beggar. "It was just after you left us," he said to the Captain. "I saw the fellow following you," the Captain said. Then he turned to Mrs. Errington. "These chaps are the plague of the Park," he added.
In the afternoon of the same day, accordingly, he went off to Knightsbridge. He rang, and was told that Captain Hindford had gone to Paris and was afterwards going for a tour on the Continent. His heart sank at the news. Was he to go on day after day searching with his mother for this corpse, which was rotting in the grave? He asked for Hindford's address. It was Poste Restante, Monte Carlo.
The earl of Hindford about this time demanded the troops stipulated for the protection of Hanover; not, perhaps, because they were thought necessary, but that the king's designs might be guessed from his answer, which was, that troops were not granted for the defence of any country till that country was in danger, and that he could not believe the elector of Hanover to be in much dread of an invasion, since he had withdrawn the native troops, and put them into the pay of England.
A shrill whistle, followed by shouts, came to them, apparently from the water. Then there was an answering whistle from somewhere in the Park. "It's the police," said Hindford. "There's something up."
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