nd
vanished through the door that Cliffe held open for her.

* * * * *

Ashe retired to his own room, dealt with some Foreign Office work, and
then allowed himself a meditative smoke. The click of the billiard-balls
had ceased abruptly about ten minutes after he had begun upon his
papers; there had been voices in the hall, Lord Grosville's he thought
among them; and now all was silence.

He thought of the events of the afternoon with mingled amusement and
annoyance. Cliffe was an unscrupulous fellow, and the child's head might
be turned. She should be protected from him in future--he vowed she
should. Lady Tranmore should take it in hand. She had been a match for
Cliffe in various other directions before this.

What brought the man, with his notorious character and antecedents, to
Grosville Park--one of the dwindling number of country-houses in England
where the old Puritan restrictions still held? It was said he was on the
look-out for a post--Ashe, indeed, happened to know it officially; and
Lord Grosville had a good deal of influence. Moreover, failing an
appointment, he was understood to be aiming at Parliament and office;
and there were two safe county-seats within the Grosville sphere.

"Yet even when he wants a thing he can't behave himself in order to get
it," thought Ashe. "Anybody else would have turned Sabbatarian for once,
and refrained from flirting with the Grosvilles' niece. But that's
Cliffe all over--and perhaps the best thing about him."

He might have added that as Cliffe was supposed to desire an appointment
under either the Foreign Office or the Colonial Office, it might have
been thought to his interest to show himself more urbane than he had in
fact shown himself that afternoon to the new Under-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs. But Ashe rarely or never indulged himself in reflections of
that kind. Besides, he and Cliffe knew each other too well for posing.
There was a time when they had been on very friendly terms, and when
Cliffe had been constantly in his mother's drawing-room. Lady Tranmore
had a weakness for "influencing" young men of family and ability; and
Cliffe, in fact, owed her a good deal. Then she had seen cause to think
ill of him; and, moreover, his travels had taken him to the other side
of the world. Ashe was now well aware that Cliffe reckoned on him as a
hostile influence and would not try either to deceive or to propitiate
him.

He thought Cli