I could not restrain a start; for I had not thought Mr. Goodenough, the friend of my Lord Essex, to be so deep in the affair as this. Keeling saw me start, I suppose; for he looked at me, and himself showed sudden agitation.
"Good evening, Keeling," said I. "We have had a little conversation once before."
"Oh! for God's sake, gentlemen! for God's sake! I am already within an inch of my life."
"I know you are," said Mr. Chiffinch severely, "and you will be nearer even than that, if you do not speak the whole truth."
"Sir; it is not that I mean," cried the man, in a very panic of terror.
"Rumbald hath been—"
"Eh? What is that?" said Mr. Chiffinch.
"Rumbald, sir, the old Colonel, of the Rye—"
"God, man! We know all about Rumbald," said the page contemptuously.
"What hath he been at now?"
"Sir; he and some of the others caught me but yesterday. They had heard some tale of my having been to Mr. Secretary, and—"
"And you swore you had not, I suppose," snarled the other.