eded admirably.

CHAPTER IX

THE RELUCTANT DUKE

Tears were not at all to Pollyooly's liking. She considered them the
sign of a feeble heart and softening brain. The Honourable John Ruffin
had thrown quite a new light on them in suggesting that they could be
used as a weapon; and she considered this use of them most of the way
to Ricksborough House.

She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy
nineteenth-century facade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a
little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But
she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.

Lucas, the butler of the duke, himself opened the door. At the sight
of Pollyooly he started back; for the moment he thought that his lost
young mistress stood before him.

Pollyooly stepped across the threshold, and said firmly:

"I want to see the Duke of Osterley, please."

The words showed Lucas his mistake; he perceived that before him stood
not his mistress, but that young red Deeping who had once made a
manifestly genuine offer to bite him; and he hesitated.

"It's very important. Please tell him that Miss Bride wants to see
him," said Pollyooly.

"Um--er--come this way, miss. I'll see if his grace will see you,"
said Lucas in a doubtful voice.

He would have liked to refuse to let her into the house; but he was
doubtful about her social standing. Therefore he took her to the
nearest drawing-room, said that he would inform his grace, and betook
himself to his master in the smoking-room, wearing a perturbed air, for
the duke had as complete a vocabulary as any nobleman in England, and
he might easily take it ill that this formidable red Deeping had not
been refused admission to his house.

"If you please, your Grace, there's a young lady--leastways a little
girl of the name of Bride--wants to see your Grace," said Lucas. "It's
the little girl you brought home as turned out not to be Lady Marion."

"What the deuce did you let her in for?" said the duke on the instant;
and he frowned at him.

"She said it was very important, your Grace," said Lucas in an unhappy
tone.

The duke continued to frown, considering: Pollyooly might have brought
word of his missing daughter; and he would by no means let slip an
opportunity of getting information about her. On the other hand he
might be about to be called upon to pay more for his kidnapping
exploit. He had, however, just lunched ducally; and he was in a