I would gladly go forth and
see new lands, the more so if I could travel with a comrade who
knew to frame his tongue to foreign speech;" and here he glanced at
Lord Claud, who seemed to him a notable linguist.
"You know no tongue but your own, Mr. Tufton?"
"Never a word; and even that I cannot speak as men speak it in
London town, so that I am fain to keep silence in a crowd like
this, lest men laugh me to scorn, and anger me till I say or do
something unseemly;" and the lad's face flushed, for he had been
sorely provoked before this, and had need of all his patience to
quell the tempest of his soul.
The Duke smiled at this boyish frankness of speech; but then his
face grew grave again, and he stood a while in thought. Then he
looked at Lord Claud, and said with some significance:
"I will think more of this matter, sir. I have used strange tools
before this, and ofttimes with success. The secret service has its
secrets and its surprises; and I have my own methods of winning the
fidelity of the messengers I employ."
"So I have heard, your Grace."
The two men looked full at each other, and the glance was neither
unfriendly nor suspicious. It appeared to Tom as though there were
mutual liking, and a disposition to confidence; but this was
neither the time nor the place to indulge it.
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