Yet these suspicions on the part of the ladies raised this handsome
golden-haired Adonis to a higher pinnacle of favour than ever. It
seemed to Tom that so long as a crime was carried out with dash,
and verve, and success, it only brought a man fame and honour. He
shivered sometimes when he thought of his mother and sister, and
what they would think if they suspected that he had been led into
an open act of law breaking and robbery. But he felt a little
flattered in the society of these fine dames, when he saw that they
looked at him with interest and curiosity, and wondered if he had
played the part of lieutenant to their hero in the recent exploit.
He had been growing used to the strange ways of that portion of the
London world in which Lord Claud had his sphere, but even yet it
did seem strange, when he began to think about it, that a man
believed to be a notorious but exceedingly clever criminal, should
be received, courted, flattered, and made much of, as was Lord
Claud, just because of his handsome presence and dashing grace of
bearing, and because he had never been caught.
Tom wondered sometimes how these same faces would look at them,
were they to be carried in irons to Newgate; and he fancied that
under such circumstances they would wear a totally different
aspect.
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