a cautious glance around the
room, walked to the door, opened and shut it again, and then drawing his
arm within Linton's, led him towards a window. For a second or two he
seemed undecided, and at last, by a great effort, he whispered a few
words in Linton's ear.

Had any third party been there to watch the effect of the whispered
confidence, he might easily have read in the speaking brilliancy of
Linton's eyes, and in his assured look, that it was of a nature to give
him the greatest pleasure. But scarce had his Lordship done speaking,
when these signs of pleasure gave way to a cold, almost stern air of
morality, and he said, "But surely, my Lord, it were far better to leave
her Ladyship to deal with such insolent pretension--"

"Hush, not so loud; speak lower. So I should, Linton, but women never
will see anything in these airs of puppyism. They persist in thinking,
or saying, at least, that they are mere modern fashionable manners, and
this endurance on their part gives encouragement. And then, when there
happens to be some disparity of years--Lady Kilgoff _is_ my junior--the
censorious world seizes on the shadow of a scandal; in fact, sir, I
will not consent to afford matter for newspaper asterisks or figurative
description."

"Your Lordship never had a better opportunity of giving open defiance to
both. These airs of Cashel are, as you remark, mere puppyism, assumed to
get credit for a certain fashionable character for levity. To avoid him
would be to acknowledge that there was danger in his society. I don't
go so far as to say that he would assert as much, but most assuredly the
world would for him. I think I hear the ready comments on your absence:
'Were not the Kilgoffs expected here?' 'Oh, they were invited, but Lord
Kilgoff was afraid to venture. Cashel had been paying attentions.' In a
word, every species of impertinence that malevolence and envy can fancy
would be fabricated. Your Lordship knows the world far better than I do;
and knows, besides, the heavy price a man pays for being the possessor
of a high capacity and a handsome wife: these are two insults that the
less fortunate in life never do, or never can forgive."

"Well, what is it you counsel?"

"To meet these calumnies in the face; small slanders, like weak fires,
are to be trampled out; to tamper with such, is to fan the flame which
at last will scorch you. Besides, to take another view of the matter:
her Ladyship is young, and has been much