to go and pay your respects, go. But I shall be obliged to you
if you will make the relations between that house and this as distant as
is consistent with the demands of courtesy.'"

"In view of that I don't think you're in any way bound to call: I'm not
at all sure you ought to. Lord Fillingford's wishes are entitled to
great weight--especially while you're living in his house."

He was a man now--and a fine specimen of one--but his boyish impetuosity
had not left him. "By Jove, I want to go, Austin!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I thought that perhaps you did."

"I want to go and see her--and I should like to tell her, if I dared,
that there's not a man in the service to touch her. I don't mean her
driving through Catsford--though she took a risk there; some of those
chaps aren't mealy-mouthed. I mean what she's done about this little
Miss Octon. That's what I like. Because the girl's her man's daughter,
she snaps her fingers at the lot of us! That's what I like,
Austin--that's why I want to go and see her. But I couldn't say that to
the governor."

"You'll never be able to, any better. So you must consider your course.
Is it--loyal--to your father?"

He knit his brows in perplexity and vexation. "Was I loyal to him that
night we went to Hatcham Ford? You didn't make that objection then!"

"I don't think I should have taken any objection to anything that gave a
chance then. I can look at this more coolly. Why not wait a little?
Perhaps Lord Fillingford will come to the conclusion that bygones had
best be bygones."

"And Aunt Sarah?"

"Is that quite so essential?"

He sat struggling between his scruples and his strong desire--loyalty to
his father, admiration of Jenny and attraction toward her.

"I might manage to give her a hint of how you feel--and about the
difficulty."

"That'd be better than nothing. Then she'd understand----?"

"She'd understand the whole position perfectly," I assured him.

He was plainly discontented with this compromise, but he accepted it
provisionally. "You give her that hint, anyhow, like a good fellow,
Austin--and I'll think over the other matter." He rose from his chair.
"Now I mustn't keep Gerald Dormer waiting any longer."

"Oh, that's Gerald Dormer, is it--the new man at Hingston?"

"Yes, he's not a bad fellow--and he doesn't think he is, either." With
this passing indication of Mr. Dormer's foible, he led the way out of
doors and introduced me to the subject of his remark