e and she has been
walking."

"You are really too unsuspicious, Reggie!"

"A woman, my dear, is perhaps a little too much the reverse where a
young couple is concerned. I have told you before, and I repeat it now
emphatically, that neither Cicely nor Malcolm is in a position to
contemplate matrimony for an instant."

"He is your heir--and Cicely is quite aware of it."

"I assure you, Margaret," he said with great conviction, "that Cicely is
not a girl with mercenary motives. She is quite charming----"

"Oh, I know your opinion of her, Reggie," Lady Cromarty broke in a
trifle impatiently, "and I am fond of her too, as you know. Still, I
don't believe a girl who can use her eyes so effectively is quite as
simple as you think."

Sir Reginald laughed indulgently.

"Really, my love, even the best of women are sometimes a trifle
uncharitable! But in any case Malcolm has quite enough sense of his
future position to realise that his wife must be somebody without the
blemish on her birth, which is no fault of dear Cicely's, but--er--makes
her ineligible for this particular position."

"I wish I could think that Malcolm is the kind of young man who would
consult anything but his own wishes. I have told you often enough,
Reggie, that I don't think it is wise to keep these two young people
living here in the same house for months on end."

"But what can one do?" asked the benevolent baronet. "Neither of them
has any home of their own. Hang it, I'm the head of their family and I'm
bound to show them a little hospitality."

"But Malcolm has rooms in town. He needn't spend months on end at
Keldale."

The baronet was silent for a moment. Then he said:

"To tell the truth, my dear, I'm afraid Malcolm is not turning out quite
so well as I had hoped. He certainly ought to be away doing something.
At the same time, hang it, you wouldn't have me turn my own kinsman and
heir out of my house, Margaret; would you?"

Lady Cromarty sighed, and then her thin lips tightened.

"You are hopeless, Reggie. I sometimes feel as though I were here merely
as matron of a home for lost Cromartys! Well, I hope your confidence
won't be abused. I confess I don't feel very comfortable about it
myself."

"Well, well," said Sir Reginald. "My own eyes are open too, I assure
you. I shall watch them very carefully at lunch, in the light of what
you have been saying."

The baronet was an old Etonian, and as his life had been somewhat
uneventful