gently:

"I admit your right to speak like this, sir, and if it rested with me I
would obey you at once."

"It does rest with you, Adrien," returned his father quickly. "Surely
you are blind, not to see that Constance Tremaine loves you with her
whole heart."

Adrien started up, his face alight and quivering with excitement.

"Impossible, sir!" he exclaimed. "Would to heaven it were true; for I
know no other woman to whom I would so gladly devote my life."

The grim old face softened and relaxed. He had not expected such an
overwhelming victory.

"Why do you say it is impossible?" he asked.

Adrien did not answer for a moment, then he slip hoarsely:

"She is already engaged to Lord Standon."

An exclamation of astonishment burst from the old man's lips. He put out
his hand in involuntary sympathy, and the two so strangely alike, yet so
wide apart in years, clasped hands. Then, as if ashamed of the momentary
emotion, the old man turned away, saying quietly:

"This is, of course, a surprise to me. Its truth yet remains to be
proved, but I should feel inclined to doubt it myself." With which he
went back to his own apartments.

Left alone once more, Adrien walked restlessly to and fro.

"If Constance really cared for me," he said to himself, "nothing else in
the world would matter. Lucky Standon! I dare not think of the future,
it what Jasper said was true."

At last he, too, returned to his room; but it was almost morning before
he fell into a troubled slumber.

CHAPTER XIII

The morning following the disastrous steeple-chase, Mr. Jasper Vermont
ordered his car, and then sat down to write to Adrien. He told him that
he regretted having to leave the Castle so suddenly, but urgent business
required his presence in London, and that he would return to Barminster
as soon as possible.

On the appearance of the motor, he took his departure, travelling direct
to Jermyn Court, where he stayed to lunch, waited on by the attentive
Norgate as though he had been Adrien himself. Then, having filled his
cigar-case with his friend's choicest Cabanas, he strolled through the
fashionable parts of the Park.

The loungers and idle men of fashion who usually frequented it at that
time of the day knew him well, and nodded with forced smiles of
friendship--it was clearly to their interest to be on good, if possible,
cordial terms with a man who always had the entree to the innermost
ci