d Lord Thrapston entered.

"Well, Aggy, what's the news? Still bothered by your two young men?
Hullo! what's wrong?"

"Read them!" cried Agatha, with a gesture towards the table.

"Eh? Head what? Oh, I see."

He sat down at the table and put on his glasses. Agatha turned her face
towards the wall; for her also everything was over. For a time no sound
was audible save an occasional crackle of the note-paper in Lord
Thrapston's shaking fingers. Then, to Agatha's indescribable
indignation, there came another sort of crackle--a dry, grating,
derisive chuckle--from that flinty-hearted old man, her grandfather.

"Good, monstrous good, 'pon my life!" said he.

"You're laughing at me!" she cried, leaping up.

"Well, my dear, I'm afraid I am."

"Oh, how cruel men are!"

"H'm! They're both men of spirit evidently."

"Calder I can just understand. I--perhaps I did treat Calder rather
badly---"

"Oh, you go so far as to admit that, do you, Aggy?"

"But Charlie! Oh, to think that Charlie should treat me like that!" and
she threw herself on the sofa again.

Lord Thrapston sat quite still. Presently Agatha rose, came to the
table, and took up her two letters. She looked at them both; and the
old man, seeming to notice nothing, yet kept his eye on her.

"I shall destroy these things," said she; and she tore Calder's letter
into tiny fragments, and flung them on the fire. Charlie's she crumpled
up and held in her hand.

"Good-night, grandpapa," she said wearily, and kissed him.

"Good-night, my dear," he answered.

And, whatever she did when she went upstairs, Lord Thrapston was in a
position to swear that Charlie's letter was not destroyed in the
drawing-room.

CHAPTER X

THE INCARNATION OF LADY AGATHA

"She's such a dear good girl, Mr. Wentworth," said Lady Merceron.
"She's the greatest comfort I have."

It was after luncheon at Langbury Court. Lady Merceron and Calder sat
on the lawn: Mrs. Marland and Millie Bushell were walking up and down;
Charlie was lying in a hammock. A week had passed since the two young
men had startled Lady Merceron by their unexpected arrival, and since
then the good lady had been doing her best to entertain them; for, as
she could not help noticing-, they seemed a little dull. It was a great
change from the whirl of London to the deep placidity of the Court, and
Lady Merceron could not quite understand why Charlie had tired so soon
of his excursion, or why his friend persis