"
"More, sir?"
"I would have you, sometimes, forget that you are only 'the best
valet in the world,' and remember that you are--a man: one in whom I
can confide; one who has lived in this great world, and felt, and
suffered, and who can therefore advise me; one I may trust to in an
emergency; for London is a very big place, they tell me, and my
friends are few--or none--and--do you understand me, Peterby?"
"Sir," said Peterby in an altered tone, "I think I do."
"Then--sit down, John, and let us talk."
With a murmur of thanks Peterby drew up a chair and sat watching
Barnabas with his shrewd eyes.
"You will remember," began Barnabas, staring up at the ceiling again,
"that when I engaged you I told you that I intended to--hum! to--cut
a figure in the fashionable world?"
"Yes, sir; and I told you that,--after what happened in a certain
wood,--it was practically impossible."
"You mean because I thrashed a scoundrel?"
"I mean because you knocked down a friend of the Prince Regent."
"And is Carnaby so very powerful, Peterby?"
"Sir, he is--the Prince's friend! He is also as great a Buck as
George Hanger, as Jehu, or Jockey of Norfolk, and as famous, almost,
as the late Sir Maurice Vibart.
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