nd of you to come, but I saw Janie
Iver in Blentmouth yesterday."

"I dare say; but she didn't tell you what I'm going to."

Harry, having made but a pretence of breakfasting, pushed away his
plate. "I'll smoke if you don't mind. You go on eating," he said. "Do
you remember a little talk we had about our friend Duplay? We agreed
that we should both like to put a spoke in his wheel."

"And you've done it," said Bob, reaching for his pipe from the
mantel-piece.

"I did do it. I can't do it any more. You know there were certain
reasons which made a marriage between Janie Iver and me seem desirable?
I'm saying nothing against her, and I don't intend to say a word against
myself. Well, those reasons no longer exist. I have written to her to
say so. She'll get that letter this afternoon."

"You've written to break off the engagement?" Bob spoke slowly and
thoughtfully, but with no great surprise.

"Yes. She accepted me under a serious misapprehension. When I asked her
I was in a position to which I had no----" He interrupted himself,
frowning a little. Not even now was he ready to say that. "In a position
which I no longer occupy," he amended, recovering his placidity. "All
the world will know that very soon. I am no longer owner of Blent."

"What?" cried Bob, jumping up and looking hard at Harry. The surprise
came now.

"And I am no longer what you called me just now--Lord Tristram. You know
the law about succeeding to peerages and entailed lands? Very well. My
birth has been discovered [he smiled for an instant] not to satisfy that
law--the merits of which, Bob, we won't discuss. Consequently not I, but
Miss Gainsborough succeeds my mother in the title and the property. I
have informed Miss Gainsborough--I ought to say Lady Tristram--of these
facts, and I'm on my way to London to see the lawyers and get everything
done in proper order."

"Good God, do you mean what you say?"

"Oh, of course I do. Do you take me for an idiot, to come up here at six
in the morning to talk balderdash?" Harry was obviously irritated.
"Everybody will know soon. I came to tell you because I fancy you've
some concern in it, and, as I say, I still want that spoke put in the
Major's wheel."

Bob sat down and was silent for many moments, smoking hard.

"But Janie won't do that," he broke out at last. "She's too straight,
too loyal. If she's accepted you----"

"A beautiful idea, Bob, if she was in love with me. But she isn't. Can
you