her duty as Cynthia's chaperon to acquaint him with
Simmonds's defection and the filling of his place by Fitzroy, "a most
unsuitable person to act as Miss Vanrenen's chauffeur"--indeed, a
young man who, she was sure, "would never have been chosen for such a
responsible position" by Mr. Vanrenen himself.

And Fitzroy was Viscount Medenham, heir to the Fairholme estates,
one of the most eligible young bachelors in the kingdom! Oh,
blind and crass that she had not guessed the truth! The car, the
luncheon-basket, the rare wine, the crest on the silver, the very
candor of the wretch in giving his real name, his instant recognition
of "Jimmy" Devar's mother, the hints of a childhood passed in
Sussex--why, even the aunt he spoke of on Derby Day must be Susan
St. Maur, while Millicent Porthcawl had actually met him in the
Bournemouth hotel!--these and many another vivid index pointed the
path of knowledge to one so well versed as she in the intricacies of
Debrett. The very attributes which she had taken for an impertinent
aping of the manners of society had shouted his identity into her deaf
ears time and again. Even an intelligent West-end housemaid would have
felt some suspicion of the facts when confronted by these piled-up
tokens. She remembered noticing his hands, the quality of his linen,
his astonishingly "good" appearance on the only occasion that she had
seen him in evening dress; she almost groaned aloud when she recalled
the manner of her son's departure from Bristol, and some imp in her
heart raked the burnt ashes of the fire that had devoured her when she
heard why Captain Devar was requested to resign his commission. Of
course, this proud young aristocrat recognized him at once, and had
brushed him out of his sight as one might brush a fly off a
windowpane.

But how was she to act in face of the threatened disaster? Why had not
her son warned her? Did Marigny know, and was that the explanation of
his sheepish demeanor when she and Cynthia were about to enter the car
that morning? Indeed, Marigny's quiet acceptance of the position was
quite as difficult to understand as her own failure to grasp the
significance of all that happened since noon on Wednesday. This very
day, before breakfast, he had come to her room with the cheering news
that information to hand from London would certainly procure the
dismissal of "Fitzroy" forthwith. The Mercury was registered in the
name of the Earl of Fairholme, the obvious deduc