ing their acquaintance had stood in past
years, and to decide--as Sir Nigel had decided--that the oaf in question
had begun to make his bid for splendid fortune under the roof of
Stornham Court itself was a thing not to be regarded calmly. It was
more than he could stand, and the folly of temper, which was forever his
undoing, betrayed him into mistakes more than once. This girl, with
her beauty and her wealth, he chose to regard as a sort of property
rightfully his own. She was his sister-in-law, at least; she was living
under his roof; he had more or less the power to encourage or discourage
such aspirants as appeared. Upon the whole there was something soothing
to one's vanity in appearing before the world as the person at present
responsible for her. It gave a man a certain dignity of position, and
his chief girding at fate had always risen from the fact that he had not
had dignity of position. He would not be held cheap in this matter, at
least. But sometimes, as he looked at the girl he turned hot and sick,
as it was driven home to him that he was no longer young, that he had
never been good-looking, and that he had cut the ground from under his
feet twelve years ago, when he had married Rosalie! If he could have
waited--if he could have done several other things--perhaps the clever
acting of a part, and his power of domination might have given him a
chance. Even that blackguard of a Mount Dunstan had a better one now.
He was young, at least, and free--and a big strong beast. He was
forced, with bitter reluctance, to admit that he himself was not even
particularly strong--of late he had felt it hideously.

So he detested Mount Dunstan the more for increasing reasons,
as he thought the matter over. It would seem, perhaps, but a
subtle pleasure to the normal mind, but to him there was
pleasure--support--aggrandisement--in referring to the ill case of the
Mount Dunstan estate, in relating illustrative anecdotes, in dwelling
upon the hopelessness of the outlook, and the notable unpopularity of
the man himself. A confiding young lady from the States was required,
he said on one occasion, but it would be necessary that she should be a
young person of much simplicity, who would not be alarmed or chilled by
the obvious. No one would realise this more clearly than Mount Dunstan
himself. He said it coldly and casually, as if it were the simplest
matter of fact. If the fellow had been making himself agreeable
to Betty, it wa