e succeeded so well that
before he left that room he had an invitation to stop the night, and as
he had brought no evening clothes with him, the offer of a suit to meet
the emergency.

"Look here, I'll tell you what, Barch," said Raynor when this invitation
and this offer were accepted, turning round as he spoke--he was at a
window which overlooked the drive up from the gates of the Grange "chaps
like us don't want to sit in a drawing-room and waste time with a pair
of prunes and prisms like Lady Katharine Fordham and that prig of a
Lorne girl. If you're in for a lark, we'll slip out and I'll show you a
bit of life on the sly. I like you-- I'm blest if I don't; so if you're
game for a kick up, I'll let you into a secret and give you the time of
your life. Now, then, listen here, old chap."

He stopped abruptly as a sudden grating sound of wheels rose from the
drive, and looking down, he saw that a vehicle had swung in through the
gates and was advancing toward the house.

"Oh Lord! that settles it; now we're in for a visitation!" he said with
an expression of deep disgust. "There's that prig of a chap, Geoff
Clavering, driving in. Can't stick that fellow at any price!"

Geoff Clavering! Cleek rose as he heard the name, walked to the window,
and looked out. So, then, he had not been so far out in his reckoning
after all. Geoff Clavering had come at last to seek an interview with
the girl of his heart.

Why the boy had delayed until now Cleek could not guess, unless it was
because of a shrinking dread of going abroad anywhere at such a time;
but that he had nerved himself to come at last for something more than a
mere call was apparent at first glance; for his face was white and
strained, and it was evident, even from this distance, that he was
labouring under strong excitement.

Undoubtedly there would be, as he had surmised, a private interview
arranged between those two people, and undoubtedly he must manage to
overhear it. What a pity that this should have happened at this
particular time, that young Clavering should have arrived while he was
up here, out of the way of seeing what happened when Geoff and Lady
Katharine first met!

A glance, a movement, a hundred different things, might tell him what he
wanted to know if he were there at that moment of first meeting. But
perhaps it was not yet too late. The carriage hadn't reached the
entrance of the house as yet; perhaps, if he hurried, if he went at
once----