said.

"'Sdeath!" swore the duke. "'Tis a man of taste--a travelled gentleman
by his air. Behold me the grace of that shoulder-knot, Charles, and
the set of that most admirable coat. Fifty guineas wouldn't buy his
Steinkirk. Who is this beau?"

"I'll present him to your grace," said Rotherby shortly. He had
pretentions at being a beau himself; but his grace--supreme arbiter in
such matters--had never yet remarked it.

They moved across the room, greetings passing as they went. At their
approach, Mr. Caryll looked up. Rotherby made him a leg with an
excessive show of deference, arguing irony. "'Tis an unlooked-for
pleasure to meet you here, sir," said he in a tone that drew the
attention of all present.

"No pleasures are so sweet as the unexpected," answered Mr. Caryll, with
casual amiability, and since he perceived at once the errand upon which
Lord Rotherby was come to him, he went half-way to meet him. "Has your
lordship been contracting any marriages of late?" he inquired.

The viscount smiled icily. "You have quick wits, sir," said he, "which
is as it should be in one who lives by them."

"Let your lordship be thankful that such is not your own case," returned
Mr. Caryll, with imperturbable good humor, and sent a titter round the
room.

"A hit! A shrewd hit, 'pon honor!" cried Wharton, tapping his snuff-box.
"I vow to Gad, Ye're undone, Charles. Ye'd better play at repartee with
Gascoigne, there. Ye're more of a weight."

"Your grace," cried Rotherby, suppressing at great cost his passion,
"'tis not to be borne that a fellow of this condition should sit among
men of quality." And with that he swung round and addressed the company
in general. "Gentlemen, do you know who this fellow is? He has the
effrontery to take my name, and call himself Caryll."

Mr. Caryll looked a moment at his brother in the silence that followed.
Then, as in a flash, he saw his chance of vindicating Mistress Winthrop,
and he seized it.

"And do you know, gentlemen, who this fellow is?" he inquired, with an
air of sly amusement. "He is--Nay, you shall judge for yourselves. You
shall hear the story of how we met; it is the story of his abduction
of a lady whose name need not be mentioned; the story of his dastardly
attempt to cozen her into a mock-marriage."

"Mock--mock-marriage?" cried the duke and a dozen others with him, some
in surprise, but most in an unbelief that was already faintly tinged
with horror--which argued ill f