"

"I maintain that it is," Scott said quietly. "It matters to me--perhaps
more than you realize--whether you behave honourably or otherwise."

"Honourably!" His brother caught him up sharply. "You're on dangerous
ground, I warn you," he said. "I won't stand that from you or any man."

"I've no intention of insulting you," Scott answered. "But I must know
the truth. Are you hoping to marry Miss Bathurst, or are you not?"

Sir Eustace drew himself up with a haughty gesture. "The time has not
come to talk of that," he said.

"Not when you are deliberately making love to her?" Scott's voice
remained quiet, but the glitter was in his eyes again--a quivering,
ominous gleam.

"Oh, that! My dear fellow, you are disquieting yourself in vain. She
knows as well as I do that that is a mere game." Eustace spoke
scoffingly, looking over his brother's head, ignoring his attitude. "I
assure you she is not so green as you imagine," he said. "It has been
nothing but a game all through."

"Nothing but a game!" Scott repeated the words slowly as if incredulous.
"Do you actually mean that?"

Sir Eustace laughed and took out his cigarettes. "What do you take me
for, you old duffer? Think I should commit myself at this stage? An old
hand like me! Not likely!"

Scott stood up before him, white to the lips. "I take you for an infernal
blackguard, if you want to know!" he said, speaking with great
distinctness. "You may call yourself a man of honour. I call you a
scoundrel!"

"What?" Eustace put back his cigarette-case with a smile that was oddly
like a snarl. "It looks to me as if you'll have to have that lesson after
all," he said. "What's the matter with you now-a-days? Fallen in love
yourself? Is that it?"

He took Scott by the shoulders, not roughly, but with power.

Scott's eyes met his like a sword in a master-hand. "The matter is," he
said, "that this precious game of yours has got to end. If you are not
man enough to end it--I will."

"Will you indeed?" Eustace shook him to and fro as he stood, but still
without violence. "And how?"

"I shall tell her," Scott spoke without the smallest hesitation, "the
exact truth. I shall tell her--and she will believe me--precisely what
you are."

"Damn you!" said Sir Eustace.

With the words he shifted his grasp, took Scott by the collar, and swung
him round.

"Then you may also tell her," he said, his voice low and furious, "that
you have had the kicking that a little yapping