Le bruit est pour le fat.

La plainte est pour le sot.

L’honnête homme trompé

S’en va et ne dit mot.

— M. DELANONI.

“AND so you cannot persuade Miss Gresley to come to us next week?” said Lord Newhaven, strolling into the dining-room at Westhope Abbey, where Rachel and Dick were sitting at a little supper-table laid for two in front of the high altar. The dining-room had formerly been the chapel, and the carved stone altar still remained under the east window.

Lord Newhaven drew up a chair, and Rachel felt vaguely relieved at his presence. He had a knack of knowing when to appear, and when to efface himself.

“She can’t leave her book,” said Rachel.

“Her first book was very clever,” said Lord Newhaven, “and what was more, it was true. I hope for her own sake she will outgrow her love of truth, or it will make deadly enemies for her.”

“And good friends,” said Rachel.

“Possibly,” said Lord Newhaven, looking narrowly at her, and almost obliged to believe that she had spoken without self-consciousness. “But if she outgrows all her principles, I hope at any rate she won’t outgrow her sharp tongue. I liked her ever since she first came to this house, ten years ago, with Lady Susan Gresley. I remember saying that Captain Pratt, who called while she was here, was a ‘bounder.’ And Miss Gresley said she did not think he was quite a bounder, only on the boundary line. If you knew Captain Pratt, that describes him exactly.”

“I wish she had not said it,” said Rachel with a sigh. “She makes trouble for herself by saying things like that. Is Lady Newhaven in the drawing-room?”

“Yes, I heard her singing ‘The Lost Chord’ not ten minutes ago.”

“I will go up to her,” said Rachel.

“I do believe,” said Lord Newhaven, when Rachel had departed, “that she has an affection for Miss Gresley.”

“It is not necessary to be a detective in plain clothes to see that,” said Dick.

“No. It generally needs to be a magnifying glass to see a woman’s friendship, and then they are only expedients till we arrive, Dick. You need not be jealous of Miss Gresley. Miss West will forget all about her when she is Mrs. Vernon.”

“She does not seem very keen about that,” said Dick grimly. “I’m only marking time. I’m no forwarder than I was.”

“Well, it’s your own fault for fixing your affections on a woman who is not anxious to marry. She has no objection to you. It is marriage she does not like.”

“Oh! That’s bosh,” said Dick. “All women wish to be married, and if they don’t they ought to.”

He felt that an invidious reflection had been cast on Rachel.

“All the same, a man with one eye can see that women with money or anything that makes them independent of us don’t flatter us by their alacrity to marry us. They will make fools of themselves for love, none greater, and they will marry for love. But their different attitude towards us, their natural lords and masters, directly we are no longer necessary to them as stepping-stones to a home and a recognised position revolts me. If you had taken my advice at the start, you would have made up to one among the mob of women who are dependent on marriage for their very existence. If a man goes into that herd he will not be refused. And if he is it does not matter. It is the blessed custom of piling everything on to the eldest son, and leavi............