t her reasons were."

"You do, apparently," said Grandcourt, not betraying by so much as an
eyelash that he cared for the reasons.

"Yes, and you had better know too, that you may judge of the influence
you have over her if she swallows her reasons and accepts you. For my
own part I would take odds against it. She saw Lydia in Cardell Chase
and heard the whole story."

Grandcourt made no immediate answer, and only went on smoking. He was
so long before he spoke that Lush moved about and looked out of the
windows, unwilling to go away without seeing some effect of his daring
move. He had expected that Grandcourt would tax him with having
contrived the affair, since Mrs. Glasher was then living at Gadsmere, a
hundred miles off, and he was prepared to admit the fact: what he cared
about was that Grandcourt should be staggered by the sense that his
intended advances must be made to a girl who had that knowledge in her
mind and had been scared by it. At length Grandcourt, seeing Lush turn
toward him, looked at him again and said, contemptuously, "What
follows?"

Here certainly was a "mate" in answer to Lush's "check:" and though his
exasperation with Grandcourt was perhaps stronger than it had ever been
before, it would have been idiocy to act as if any further move could
be useful. He gave a slight shrug with one shoulder, and was going to
walk away, when Grandcourt, turning on his seat toward the table, said,
as quietly as if nothing had occurred, "Oblige me by pushing that pen
and paper here, will you?"

No thunderous, bullying superior could have exercised the imperious
spell that Grandcourt did. Why, instead of being obeyed, he had never
been told to go to a warmer place, was perhaps a mystery to those who
found themselves obeying him. The pen and paper were pushed to him, and
as he took them he said, "Just wait for this letter."

He scrawled with ease, and the brief note was quickly addressed. "Let
Hutchins go with it at once, will you?" said Grandcourt, pushing the
letter away from him.

As Lush had expected, it was addressed to Miss Harleth, Offendene. When
his irritation had cooled down he was glad there had been no explosive
quarrel; but he felt sure that there was a notch made against him, and
that somehow or other he was intended to pay. It was also clear to him
that the immediate effect of his revelation had been to harden
Grandcourt's previous determination. But as to the particular movements
that made