pt in almost perpetual use, was fighting hard too.

"No one sent me," said Sir Seymour with contempt. "But that's no matter.
You understand now that you are to leave this young lady alone. Her
acquaintance with you has ceased. It won't be renewed. If you call on
her you will be sent off. If you write to her your letters will be burnt
without being read. If you try to persecute her in any way means will be
found to protect her and to punish you. I shall see to that."

Arabian's mouth was still tightly shut and he was standing quite still
and seemed to be thinking, or trying to think, deeply. For his eyes now
had a curiously inward look. If Sir Seymour had expected a burst of rage
as the sequel to his very plain speaking he was deceived. Apparently
this man was serenely beyond that society in which a human being can be
insulted and resent it. Or else had he been thinking with such intensity
that he had not even heard what had just been said to him? For a moment
Sir Seymour was inclined to believe so. And he was about to reiterate
what he had said, to force it on Arabian's attention, when the latter
stopped him.

"Yes--yes!" he said. "I hear! Do not!"

He seemed to be turning something over in his mind with complete
self-possession under the eyes of the man who had just scornfully
attacked him. At last he said:

"I fear I was rude just now. You startled me. I said it was
impertinence. But I see, I understand now. The women--they are clever.
And when age comes--ah, we have no longer much defence against them."

And he smiled.

"What d'you mean?" said Sir Seymour, longing to knock the fellow
down, and feeling an almost insuperable difficulty in retaining his
self-control.

"This I mean! You say you come to me sent by Miss Van Tuyn. But I
say--no! You come to me sent by Lady Sellingworth."

Sir Seymour was startled. Was the fellow so brazen that he was going to
allude to what had happened over ten years ago? That seemed incredible,
but with such a man perhaps everything was possible.

"It is like this!" continued Arabian, in a suave and explanatory voice.
"Lady Sellingworth she hates Miss Van Tuyn. They have quarrelled about
a young man. His name is Craven. I have met him in a restaurant. I
dine there with Miss van Tuyn. He dines there that night with
Lady Sellingworth, who is in love with him, as old women are with
nice-looking boys, and--"

"Hold your tongue, you infernal blackguard!"

"Miss Van Tuyn calls Cr