gry.

Outside Mr. Caryll hailed a chair, and had himself carried to his
lodging in Old Palace Yard, where Leduc awaited him. As his bearers
swung briskly along, Mr. Caryll sat back and gave himself up to thought.

Lord Ostermore interested him vastly. For a moment that day the earl had
aroused his anger, as you may have judged from the sudden resolve upon
which he had acted when he delivered him that letter, thus embarking
at the eleventh hour upon a task which he had already determined to
abandon. He knew not now whether to rejoice or deplore that he had acted
upon that angry impulse. He knew not, indeed, whether to pity or despise
this man who was swayed by no such high motives as must have
affected most of those who were faithful to the exiled James. Those
motives--motives of chivalry and romanticism in most cases--Lord
Ostermore would have despised if he could have understood them; for he
was a man of the type that despises all things that are not essentially
practical, whose results are not immediately obvious. Being all but
ruined by his association with the South Sea Company, he was willing for
the sake of profit to turn traitor to the king de facto, even as thirty
years ago, actuated by similar motives, he had turned traitor to the
king de jure.

What was one to make of such a man, wondered Mr. Caryll. If he were
equipped with wit enough to apprehend the baseness of his conduct, he
would be easily understood and it would be easy to despise him. But Mr.
Caryll perceived that he was dealing with one who never probed into the
deeps of anything--himself and his own conduct least of all--and that
a deplorable lack of perception, of understanding almost, deprived his
lordship of the power to feel as most men feel, to judge as most men
judge. And hence was it that Mr. Caryll thought him a subject for pity
rather than contempt. Even in that other thirty-year-old matter that so
closely touched Mr. Caryll, the latter was sure that the same pitiful
shortcomings might be urged in the man's excuse.

Meanwhile, behind him at Stretton House, Mr. Caryll had left a scene of
strife between Lady Ostermore and her son on one side and Lord Ostermore
on the other. Weak and vacillating as he was in most things, it seemed
that the earl could be strong in his dislike of his son, and firm in his
determination not to condone the infamy of his behavior toward Hortensia
Winthrop.

"The fault is yours," Rotherby sought to excuse himself