l with him?"

"I didn't quarrel with him," said Drake quietly. "As you say, we have
always been good friends. He has always been good to me, ever since I
was a boy. Good and liberal. We have never had a cross word until now.
But you know my uncle--you know how keenly set he is on politics. He is
a Conservative of the old school; one of those old Tories whom we call
blue, and who are nearly extinct. God knows whether they are right or
wrong; I only know that I can't go with them. He asked me to stand for a
place in the Tory-Conservative interest. It was an easy place; I should
have been returned without difficulty. Most men would have done it; but
I couldn't. I don't go in very much for principle, either political or
moral; but my uncle's views--well, I couldn't swallow them. I was
obliged to decline. He cut up rough; sent me a letter with more bad
language in it than I've ever read in my life. Then he went and married
a young girl--an American."

Lady Lucille heaved a long sigh.

"How foolish of you!" she murmured. "As if it mattered."

Drake filled his pipe again, and smiled cynically over the match as he
lit it.

"That's your view of it?" he said. "I suppose--yes, I suppose you think
I've been a fool. I dare say you're right; but, unfortunately for me, I
couldn't look at it in that way. I stuck to my colors--that's a
highfalutin way of putting it--and I've got to pay the penalty. My
uncle's married, and, likely enough--in fact, in all probability--his
wife will present the world with a young Lord Angleford."

"She's quite a young woman," murmured Lucille, with the wisdom of her
kind.

"Just so," said Drake. "So I am in rather a hole. I always looked
forward to inheriting Anglemere and the estate and my uncle's money. But
all that is altered. He may have an heir who will very properly inherit
all that I thought was to be mine. I wrote and told you of this, though
it wasn't necessary; but I deemed it right to you to place the whole
matter before you, Lucille. I've no doubt that the society papers have
saved me the trouble, and helped you thoroughly to realize that the man
to whom you were engaged was no longer the heir to the earldom of
Angleford and Lord Angleford's money, but merely Drake Selbie, a mere
nobody, and plunged up to his neck in debts and difficulties."

She was silent, and he went on:

"See here, Luce, I asked you to marry me because I loved you. You are
the most beautiful woman I have ever met