kept no valet; men of his type seldom care to have
another in such close relations as must necessarily happen when one man
holds the keys of another. It has been said by some cynic, that "the man
who takes off your coat sees what is passing in the heart beneath it,"
and with this statement Mr. Vermont probably agreed.

"I am a simple-minded, rough-and-ready creature," he often assured his
friends; "a man to worry my tie, and force me to buy a new coat, because
he desires my old one, would drive me mad."

So he undressed himself slowly, reckoning up his gains, smiling at his
mask of a face in the large mirror, and hatching his little plots every
knot he untied, every button he released. At last he got into bed, and
slept as easily and serenely as any simple-minded farmer.

CHAPTER XII

But that night Adrien Leroy could not sleep. Dismissing his valet, he
threw himself into a chair, and began to review the events of the day,
which had affected him more deeply than he would confess to. Then the
mere sight of Lady Constance with Lord Standon had convinced him that
any hope of ever winning her for his wife was at an end. For so many
years had he himself been wooed and sought after, without response, that
he was as ignorant of the rules of the game of love as any child. Love!
he had sneered at it, jested at its power all his life; but now he was
beginning to suffer from its pangs himself. He rose hastily, and
throwing open the window of his dressing room, stepped out on the
balcony.

It was an exquisite night, and the stars shone like diamonds. Yet their
very distance and detachment from all things earthly only served to
deepen Adrien's melancholy. Before him stretched, in seemingly endless
vista, the woods and lands of his heritage. As far as eye could reach,
the earth and all within it and upon it belonged to him; and yet he
sighed for the love and devotion of one frail girl, which, had he but
known, were already his.

As he walked to and fro, he was again assailed by a wholesome distaste
of his present empty, aimless existence, and a great longing came over
him to break away from it and start afresh. Yes! he was very tired of it
all. The men and women with whom he had up to this spent his time were
becoming abhorrent to him. The thought of the soft lips and glances that
had hitherto beguiled him, and lulled him into a state bordering upon
stupor, now filled him with shame. Love,