The Lord Proprietor uncrossed and recrossed his legs irritably. "Come,
come, Vigoureux, this will hardly do. Will it, now? I put it to you as
a man of the world. No doubt it's all innocent enough, but folks will
talk. And, after all, I'm responsible for any--er--scandal affecting
the Islands. Hey?"

The Commandant rose with a sudden flush on his face.

"Scandal, Sir Caesar? Oh, to be sure, I cannot understand you."

"Tut-tut!" The Lord Proprietor smiled. "Of course, we know there's
nothing in it. A young lady--youngish, at least--and you old enough to
be her father. But, all the same, tongues will wag."

"And they have been wagging?" The Commandant, after a short turn across
the room and back, stood over him, his hands crossed under his coat
tails. "But yours, sir, is the only one that has dared to wag in my
presence."

"Sir!" The Lord Proprietor jumped to his feet.

"You have put many humiliations upon me, Sir Caesar; and because they
affected me only, I have endured them. But in this you go too far."

The Lord Proprietor, on the verge of an angry retort, checked himself,
with a short laugh.

"I refuse to lose my temper with you," said he. "You are unreasonable.
You misconceive me as imputing scandal when, as a matter of fact, I was
trying to assure you that I rejected the imputation. For me, the
disparity in age alone----"

The Commandant, with a wave of his hand to the door, turned away
wearily.

"I merely thought it right to warn you," pursued Sir Caesar, taking
heart of grace as his opponent appeared to weaken, "that others may be
less charitable. And they look to me. I think--I really think--you
might consider the delicacy of my position; that I am--er--ultimately
responsible for the good name of these Islands."

But here he paused with a start; for the Commandant had wheeled about
suddenly, and stood over him, and the Commandant's eyes were dangerous.

"Sir Caesar"--the Commandant controlled his voice with an effort, for it
shook a little--"in the last few minutes some things have been made
plain to me which were hitherto obscure. I have wondered sometimes,
here in these forsaken barracks, at actions of yours which seemed
deliberately calculated to annoy one who--Heaven knows--started with
every wish to be friendly. Saving my own small personal dignity, of
which from indolence I have been too careless, I have reserved nothing
of my old importance in these Islands which, before you purchased them,