oetry. Instead
of being stricken to the heart with a solemn sorrow, as a Patriot
Martyr would have been under similar circumstances, he felt slighted and
ridiculous. He was hardly convinced of what had seemed at first the most
obvious feature of the case, Trefusis's inferiority to himself.

He stood under the trees until Trefusis reappeared on his way home,
making, Erskine thought, as much noise with his heels on the gravel as a
regiment of delicately bred men would have done. He stopped for a moment
to make inquiry at the lodge as he went out; then his footsteps died
away in the distance.

Erskine, chilled, stiff, and with a sensation of a bad cold coming on,
went into the house, and was relieved to find that Gertrude had retired,
and that Lady Brandon, though she had been sure that he had ridden into
the river in the dark, had nevertheless provided a warm supper for him.

CHAPTER XV

Erskine soon found plenty of themes for his newly begotten cynicism.
Gertrude's manner towards him softened so much that he, believing her
heart given to his rival, concluded that she was tempting him to make a
proposal which she had no intention of accepting. Sir Charles, to whom
he told what he had overheard in the avenue, professed sympathy, but
was evidently pleased to learn that there was nothing serious in the
attentions Trefusis paid to Agatha. Erskine wrote three bitter sonnets
on hollow friendship and showed them to Sir Charles, who, failing to
apply them to himself, praised them highly and showed them to Trefusis
without asking the author's permission. Trefusis remarked that in a
corrupt society expressions of dissatisfaction were always creditable to
a writer's sensibility; but he did not say much in praise of the verse.

"Why has he taken to writing in this vein?" he said. "Has he been
disappointed in any way of late? Has he proposed to Miss Lindsay and
been rejected?"

"No," said Sir Charles surprised by this blunt reference to a subject
they had never before discussed. "He does not intend to propose to Miss
Lindsay."

"But he did intend to."

"He certainly did, but he has given up the idea."

"Why?" said Trefusis, apparently disapproving strongly of the
renunciation.

Sir Charles shrugged his shoulders and did not reply.

"I am sorry to hear it. I wish you could induce him to change his mind.
He is a nice fellow, with enough to live on comfortably, whilst he
is yet what is called a poor man, so that she cou