le and said somewhat abruptly:

"Westerham, I am going to ask you a question which you will probably
think a rather impertinent one, and, moreover, whether you choose to
answer it or not, I hope you will not for the present ask me why I ask
it. Now there are a good many 'asks' in that, but as the matter is
somewhat important to both of us, I wanted to put the thing plainly,
even at the expense of a little tautology."

Lord Westerham, in addition to being a gentleman and a soldier, was also
one of the most frankly open-minded men that another honest man could
wish to have anything to do with, and so, after a long pull at his
cigar, he looked round and said:

"My dear Lennard, we were school-fellows once, and we managed to worry
through Cambridge together--you with a great deal more kudos than I
did--and we have been very good friends since, so there can't be any
question of impertinence between us, although there might be some
unpleasantness for one or both of us. But, anyhow, whatever it is, out
with it. Honestly, I don't think you could offend me if you tried."

"That's just what I thought you would say," replied Lennard. "And I
think you are about the only man I should like to ask such a question;
but after what you've just said I'll put it just as shortly as it can be
made."

"And the question is?" asked Lord Westerham, blowing a long stream of
blue smoke up through the still air towards the tops of the pine trees.

There was a little pause, during which Lennard bit off about half an
inch of the end of his cigar, spat it out, and took two or three more
puffs from what was left. Then he said, in a dry, almost harsh tone:

"The question is quite a short one, Westerham, and you can answer it by
a simple yes or no. It's just this: Do you intend to make Miss Parmenter
Marchioness of Westerham or not? Other things of course being equal, as
we used to say at school."

Somewhat to Lennard's astonishment, Lord Westerham's cigar shot from his
lips like a torpedo from a tube, and after it came an explosion of
laughter, which fully accounted for its sudden ejectment. His lordship
leant up against a convenient pine and laughed till he was almost
speechless.

"What the devil's the matter with you, Westerham?" said Lennard, with a
note of anger in his voice. "You'll excuse my saying so, but it seems
hardly a question for a sort of explosion like that. I have been asking
you a question which, as you might have seen, concer