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There were three vacant places at the round table where M. de Tournefort usually found himself at two o'clock; this day, however, he was an absentee; but one of the places soon after the meal commenced was occupied by Lord Forestfield, who came in with a smiling salutation, which included the company, and an apology for being late, having been detained on business.

'Business?' growled Sir Wolfrey Delapryme, deep in investigating the recesses of a pie; 'nice man of business you are! What was it--horse-chaunting or rigging the market that you have been up to?'

'Don't speak with your mouth full, Wolfrey, and never talk of things you don't understand,' said Lord Forestfield. 'I assure you I have been on important business to the City.'

'I wish I had a pal who would put me up to something good in the City,' murmured Mrs. Ingram plaintively. 'I don't see the good of having a Bank director for one's husband if he can't help himself to coin.'

'Plain enough he cannot do that,' said Captain Seaver, 'or he would get himself a new hat; never saw such a confounded bad hat as Ingram wears in all my life.'