"You will come up to him, then? It makes no matter!"

"I am too busy," he evasively replied. "Tell me, Ronald, who it is."

"'Tis a friend."

"Humph! He has heard of my elixir and wants--ah, well, I shall have
friends enough now, I'll warrant me."

"He is an enemy of Sir George Vernon, then," added the knight.

"Hey! Bring him down, then," said the alchemyst. "I will meet him
outside the room."

"Well, Master John Manners will be down by and bye. Lady Bury
meanwhile is entertaining him, for he was hungry."

Edmund started.

"Manners, John Manners!" he exclaimed. "Nay, then, bring him not
hither. Does he know that I am here?"

"Aye, I have told him."

"You have!" ejaculated Edmund, in a frenzy of terror. "I met him at
Haddon, he is a friend of the baron's."

"He was," replied his friend; "but things have changed, and now he is
like to invoke thy aid. He will help us to have our revenge, maybe,
for I have been persuading him; he is very bitter now against the