to catch you with those languishing black eyes of hers. You are not
the first; I know her of old."

"If," said his brother, rising in dudgeon, "you are going to abuse
Madeline to me, I think I had better say good night, for we shall
quarrel--which I would not do for anything."

Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. "Those whom the gods wish to destroy
they first make mad," he muttered, as he lit his hand candle. "This is
what comes of a course of South Africa."

But Sir Eustace was an amenable man. His favourite motto was "Live and
let live"; and having given the matter his best consideration during the
lengthy process of shaving himself on the following morning, he came to
the conclusion, reluctantly enough it must be owned, that it was evident
that his brother meant to have his own way, and therefore the best thing
to be done was to fall in with his views and trust to the chapter
of accidents to bring the thing to naught. Sir Eustace, for all his
apparent worldliness and cynicism, was a good fellow at heart, and
cherished a warm affection for his awkward, taciturn brother. He
also cherished a great dislike for Lady Croston, whose character he
thoroughly understood. He saw a good deal of her, it is true, because he
happened to be one of the executors of her husband's will; and since he
had come into the baronetcy it had struck him that she had developed a
considerable partiality for his society.

The idea of a marriage between his brother and his brother's old flame
was in every way distasteful to him. In the first place, under her
husband's will, Madeline would bring, comparatively speaking, relatively
little with her should she marry again. That was one objection. Another,
and still more forcible one from Sir Eustace's point of view, was that
at her time of life she was not likely to present the house of Peritt
with an heir. Now, Sir Eustace had not the slightest intention of
marrying. Matrimony was, he considered, an excellent institution, and
necessary to the carrying on of the world in a respectable manner, but
it was not one with which he was anxious to identify himself. Therefore,
if his brother married at all, it was his earnest desire that the union
should bring children to inherit the title and estates. Prominent above
both these excellent reasons, stood his intense distrust and dislike of
the lady.

Needs must, however, when the devil (by whom he understood Madeline)
drives. He was not going to quarr