to
hurt your feelings----"

"Thank you. The absurdity of the present position lies in the fact
that I shall have all my work cut out to hold your wrath against these
people within bounds when once you have met Cynthia."

"Oh, I have no doubt she is pretty, and fascinating, and all that sort
of thing," growled the Earl, in a grudging access of good humor.
"Confound it, that is why we are putty in their hands, George. Don't
forget I've had fifty-five years of 'em. Gad! I could tell you
things--all right, let us chuck the dispute for the time. Shall I see
you at dinner?"

"Yes--if you are alone."

"There will be no women. I'll take devilish good care of that.
Scarland is in town for the show, and he is bringing Sir Ashley Stoke,
but Betty is nursing a youngster through the measles. Good Lord! I'm
glad your aunt didn't get hold of Betty!"

Now, Lord Fairholme's diatribes against the sex were not quite
justified. Notorious as a lady-killer in his youth, in middle age he
was as garrulous a gossip as Mrs. Devar herself. Indeed, he had an
uneasy consciousness that Lady St. Maur might turn and rend him if
stress were laid only on _her_ efforts to thwart his son's unexpected
leaning towards matrimony. During every yard of the journey from
Chester to London he had tried to extract information from Marigny,
and the sharp-witted Frenchman had enjoyed himself hugely in
displaying a well-feigned reluctance to yield to the Earl's probing.
It was just as much a part of his scheme to make the threatened
alliance as objectionable on the one side as on the other. By
painting Medenham as an unprincipled adventurer he had succeeded in
alarming Vanrenen; his sly hints, derogatory of both Cynthia and her
father, now fanned the flame of suspicion kindled in Lord Fairholme's
breast by his sister's remonstrances. Unfortunately, his lordship had
gone straight to Curzon Street and told Susan St. Maur every word that
Marigny had said, and a good deal that he had not said, but had left
to be inferred from a smirk, a malicious glance, an airy gesture.

Perhaps the two elderly guardians of the Fairholme line were not
wholly to blame for their interference. The title descended through
male heirs only, and Medenham's marriage thereby attained an added
importance. Lord Fairholme himself had been singularly fortunate in
escaping a mesalliance--several, in fact--and it was the one great
trouble in his otherwise smooth and self-contained life that h