ent, unless--" and here he
paused.

The position required consideration. It was easy enough to tell her
about these people. Merely to say that they were an itinerant company of
actors and actresses would be sufficient to ensure them a speedy _conge_
from Blanford. But was it wise to do this? Did he want them to go? A
hasty action is often like a boomerang. It returns on the toes of the
person who thoughtlessly launches it in flight. No, on the whole they
had better remain, he told himself. The palace would form an excellent
background for the sensational exposure he hoped to make. If he could
only get the Bishop into a corner, he would be quite satisfied.

"Well, what?" she demanded sharply, impatient at his unfinished
sentence.

"Unless," he continued, hedging carefully--"unless your nephew felt that
it was quite sufficient to have explained things to his father.
Doubtless the Bishop knows all about his son's friends."

"The Bishop knows a great deal too much for a man in his position,"
snapped his sister.

"Quite so," thought the journalist, "and doesn't confide it to you."
Aloud he remarked:

"Of course there's nothing particular to be said against them, except
that they're hardly in Cecil's set."

"I didn't need you to tell me that. But what about the ladies?"

"Ah, yes, the ladies. Well, really, you've put me in an awkward
position, Miss Banborough. One can't be uncomplimentary to the fair sex,
you know."

"Humph! Well, Josephus sees more of both of them than is good for him.
But of course Mrs. Mackintosh has neither the youth nor the good looks
to cause me any anxiety."

"Mrs. Mackintosh is eminently respectable," said Marchmont, who always
spoke the truth when it did not conflict with business.

"But Miss Arminster?"

The journalist did not answer.

"Well," she cried, "why don't you speak?"

"Madam," he replied, "you place me in a most embarrassing situation. My
duty to you and the natural gallantry of my nature draw me in different
directions."

"I insist."

"I put myself in your hands. In saying what I do I'm laying myself open
to serious misconstruction."

"You may rely upon my silence."

"Any indiscretion on your part would be most unfortunate."

"I shall not forget the confidence you've reposed in me."

"I shall hold you to that," he said. "If I tell you what I have in mind,
will you promise not to use the information without my permission?"

"That I cannot say."

"Then I say n