."

"Which I can never repay!"

"Which you will repay one of these days, with interest--if I know any
thing of human nature," answered Sir Patrick.

He said the words with the emphasis of strong conviction. They were
barely spoken when Mr. Delamayn appeared (exactly as Miss Silvester
had appeared) at the entrance to the summer-house. He, too, vanished,
unnoticed--like Miss Silvester again. But there the parallel stopped.
The Honorable Geoffrey's expression, on discovering the place to be
occupied, was, unmistakably an expression of relief.

Arnold drew the right inference, this time, from Sir Patrick's language
and Sir Patrick's tones. He eagerly took up the defense of his friend.

"You said that rather bitterly, Sir," he remarked. "What has Geoffrey
done to offend you?"

"He presumes to exist--that's what he has done," retorted Sir Patrick.
"Don't stare! I am speaking generally. Your friend is the model young
Briton of the present time. I don't like the model young Briton. I
don't see the sense of crowing over him as a superb national production,
because he is big and strong, and drinks beer with impunity, and takes a
cold shower bath all the year round. There is far too much glorification
in England, just now, of the mere physical qualities which an Englishman
shares with the savage and the brute. And the ill results are beginning
to show themselves already! We are readier than we ever were to practice
all that is rough in our national customs, and to excuse all that is
violent and brutish in our national acts. Read the popular books--attend
the popular amusements; and you will find at the bottom of them all a
lessening regard for the gentler graces of civilized life, and a growing
admiration for the virtues of the aboriginal Britons!"

Arnold listened in blank amazement. He had been the innocent means
of relieving Sir Patrick's mind of an accumulation of social protest,
unprovided with an issue for some time past. "How hot you are over it,
Sir!" he exclaimed, in irrepressible astonishment.

Sir Patrick instantly recovered himself. The genuine wonder expressed in
the young man's face was irresistible.

"Almost as hot," he said, "as if I was cheering at a boat-race, or
wrangling over a betting-book--eh? Ah, we were so easily heated when
I was a young man! Let's change the subject. I know nothing to the
prejudice of your friend, Mr. Delamayn. It's the cant of the day," cried
Sir Patrick, relapsing again, "to t