he said, and his tone was not
pleasant: "Lord Beauvayse attained the height of his ambition a few
minutes ago."

"Did he? Well, I hope disillusion was not the outcome of realisation. Up
to the present"--the humorous, keen eyes were wrinkled at the
corners--"all the boy's swans have been geese, some of 'em the sable
kind."

Saxham answered stiffly: "I should say that in this case the swan
decidedly predominates."

The other whistled a bar of his pleasant little tune before he spoke
again. "It is a capital thing for Beauvayse, being shut up here, out of
the way of women."

"Are there no women in Gueldersdorp?"

"None of the kind Beauvayse's canoe is given to capsizing on." The line in
his senior's cheek flickered with a hinted smile. "None of the kind that
run after him, lie in wait for him, buzz round him like wasps about a
honey-bowl. I've developed muscle getting the boy out of amatory scrapes,
with the Society octopus, with the Garrison husband-hunter, with the
professional man-eater, theatrical or music-hall; and the latest, most
inexpressible She, is always the loveliest woman in the world. Queer
world!"

"A damned queer world!" agreed Saxham.

"I'd prefer to call it a blessed queer one, because, with all its chaotic,
weltering incongruities--there's a Carlyleism for you--I love it! I
couldn't live without loving it and laughing at it, any more than
Beauvayse could get on _minus_ an affair of the heart. Ah, yes, that
amatory lyre of his is an uncommonly adaptable instrument. I've known it
thrummed to the praises of a middle-aged Duchess--quite a beauty still,
even by daylight, with her three veils on, and an Operatic soprano, with a
mascot cockatoo, not to mention a round dozen of frisky matrons of the
kind that exploit nice boys. Just before we came out, it could play
nothing but that famous song-and-dance tune that London went mad over at
the Jollity in June--is raving over still, I believe! Can't give you the
exact title of the thing, but 'Darling, Will You Meet Me In The Centre Of
The Circle That The Limelight Makes Upon The Floor, Tiddle-e-yum?' would
meet the case. We have Musical Comedy now in place of what used to be
Burlesque in your London days, Saxham, with a Leading Lady instead of a
Principal Boy, and a Chorus in long skirts."

Saxham admitted with a cynical twitch of the mouth:

"There's nothing so short as a long skirt--properly managed."

"You're right. And Lessie Lavigne and the rest o