" he added.

Sir William lifted his eyebrows ironically. "I hardly think so."

Gaston laughed, not wishing him to take the thing at all seriously. He
continued airily:

"It would be amusing if the property went with the title after all,
wouldn't it, sir?"

Sir William got to his feet and said testily: "That should never be
while I lived!"

"Of course not, sir."

Sir William saw the bull, and laughed, heartily for him.

They bade each other good-night.

"I'll have a look in the solicitor's office all the same," said Gaston
to himself.

CHAPTER X. HE COMES TO "THE WAKING OF THE FIRE"

A few days afterwards Gaston joined a small party at Peppingham. Without
any accent life was made easy for him. He was alone much, and yet, to
himself, he seemed to have enough of company.

The situation did not impose itself conspicuously. Delia gave him no
especial reason to be vain. She had not an exceeding wit, but she had
charm, and her talk was interesting to Gaston, who had come, for the
first time, into somewhat intimate relations with an English girl. He
was struck with her conventional delicacy and honour on one side, and
the limitation of her ideas on the other. But with it all she had some
slight touch of temperament which lifted her from the usual level. And
just now her sprightliness was more marked than it had ever been.

Her great hour seemed come to her. She knew that there had been talk
among the elders, and what was meant by Gaston's visit. Still, they were
not much alone together. Gaston saw her mostly with others. Even a woman
with a tender strain for a man knows what will serve for her ascendancy:
the graciousness of her disposition, the occasional flash of her
mother's temper, and her sense of being superior to a situation--the
gift of every well-bred English girl.

Cluny Vosse was also at the house, and his devotion was divided between
Delia and Gaston. Cluny was a great favourite, and Agatha Gasgoyne, who
had a wild sense of humour, egged him on with her sister, which gave
Delia enough to do. At last Cluny, in a burst of confidence, declared
that he meant to propose to Delia. Agatha then became serious, and said
that Delia was at least four years older than himself, that he was just
her--Agatha's--age, and that the other match would be very unsuitable.
This put Cluny on Delia's defence, and he praised her youth, and hinted
at his own elderliness. He had lived, he had seen It (Cluny called the
w