eover, had ill prepared him for social
intercourse; the laughter, the clash of conversation, the noise on
every side, the length of the meal, the strain to maintain a fit and
proper attitude as host, had tried to the utmost nerves by nature
hypersensitive.

Rupert, who had leisure to study the suddenly lined and tired
lineaments of the abstracted countenance before him, noted with
self-congratulation the change that a few hours seemed to have wrought
upon it, and decided that the moment had come to strike.

"So, Adrian," he said, looking down demurely as he spoke into the
glass of wine he had been toying with--Rupert was an abstemious man.
"So, Adrian, you have been playing the chivalrous role of rescuer of
distressed damsels--squire of dames and what not. The last one would
have ascribed to you at least at this end of your life. Ha," throwing
up his head with a mirthless laugh; "how little any of us would have
thought what a blessing in disguise your freak of self-exile was
destined to become to us!"

At the sound of the incisive voice Adrian had returned with a slight
shiver from distant musing to the consciousness of the other's
presence.

"And did you not always look upon my exile as a blessing undisguised,
Rupert?" answered he, fixing his brother with his large grave gaze.

Rupert's eyelids wavered a little beneath it, but his tone was coolly
insolent as he made reply:

"If it pleases you to make no count of our fraternal affection for
you, my dear fellow; if by insisting upon _our_ unnatural depravity
you contrive a more decent excuse for your own vagaries, you have my
full permission to dub me Cain at once and have done with it."

A light sigh escaped the elder man, and then he resolutely closed his
lips. It was by behaviour such as this, by his almost diabolical
ingenuity in the art of being uncongenial, that Rupert had so largely
contributed to make his own house impossible to him. But where was the
use of either argument or expostulation with one so incapable of even
understanding the mainsprings of his actions? Moreover (_he_, above
all, must not forget it) Rupert had suffered through him in pride and
self-esteem. And yet, despite Sir Adrian's philosophic mind, despite
his vast, pessimistic though benevolent tolerance for erring human
nature, his was a very human heart; and it added not a little to the
sadness of his lot at every return to Pulwick (dating from that first
most bitter home-coming) to f