! If you'd been a kind, self-sacrificing
friend, you'd have stayed on, and worked that piquet for all you were
worth!"

"But I'm not self-sacrificing, you see!" Captain Guest explained, and
in truth he did not look it. Cornelia's glance took in the magnificent
proportions of the man, the indefinable air of birth and breeding, the
faultless toilette; the strong, dark features. To one and all she paid
a tribute of admiration, but the expression on the face was of
concentrated self-sufficiency. At this point admiration stopped dead,
to be replaced by an uneasy dread. Was Geoffrey Greville, even as his
friend, frankly indifferent to everything but his own amusement, and if
so, what of poor Elma and her dream? It was an awful reflection that in
such a case she herself would be largely responsible for thrusting Elma
into danger. Her expression clouded, and she stared through the window
with unseeing eyes. Captain Guest's words had been so exceedingly plain
that she had not affected to misunderstand their meaning, and the ice
once broken, she was glad of the opportunity of solving her doubts.

"You know Mr Greville very well. Is he--a flirt?"

Captain Guest flashed a glance at her; a rapid, understanding glance.

"He has been," he replied quietly. "A desperate flirt; but--he is not
flirting now!"

"You think--"

"I'm sure!"

Cornelia clasped her hands with a sigh of relief.

"Then--?"

"The Deluge!"

"You mean--?"

"He can't marry her, of course! She's a lovely girl, and everything
that's nice, and good, and that kind of thing, but--not at all the kind
of girl he ought to marry."

"Ought he to marry someone hideous then, with an ugly temper? Poor
fellow! Why?"

"There's no necessity to be hideous, that I know of, though as a matter
of fact he probably won't find a girl suitable as to means and position,
who is anything like so attractive, personally, as Miss Ramsden.
Greville is hardly his own master, Miss Briskett. He is not a rich man,
and he has the place to think of. Besides, there's Madame to consider.
Madame belongs to a noble house, and has high ideas for her son."

"Is it the custom over here, for the mommas to choose wives for their
sons? I don't know much about Mr Greville, but from the look of him I
shouldn't suppose he was one of that sort. He has a kind of an air as
if he'd want a lot of moving, once he got his head set! If he really
cares--"

Captain Guest shrugged expressi