invited the Stanhopes to stay there next summer."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing against it."

"Very good. Do you think Mostyn is in London now?"

"I should not wonder. I am sure Dora is expecting him."

In fact, the next morning they met Dora and Basil Stanhope, driving in
Hyde Park with Mostyn, but the smiling greeting which passed between the
parties did not, except in the case of Basil Stanhope, fairly represent
the dominant feeling of anyone. As for Stanhope, his nature was so clear
and truthful that he would hardly have comprehended a smile which was
intended to veil feelings not to be called either quite friendly or
quite pleasant. After this meeting all the joy went out of Ruth and
Ethel's shopping. They wanted to get back to the Court, and they
attended strictly to business in order to do so.

Mostyn followed them very quickly. He was exceedingly anxious to see
and hear for himself how his affairs regarding Rawdon stood. They were
easily made plain to him, and he saw with a pang of disappointment that
all his hopes of being Squire of Rawdon Manor were over. Every penny he
could righteously claim was paid to him, and on the title deeds of the
ancient place he had no longer the shadow of a claim. The Squire looked
ten years younger as he affectionately laid both hands on the redeemed
parchments, and Mostyn with enforced politeness congratulated him on
their integrity and then made a hurried retreat. Of its own kind this
disappointment was as great as the loss of Dora. He could think of
neither without a sense of immeasurable and disastrous failure. One
petty satisfaction regarding the payment of the mortgage was his only
com-fort. He might now show McLean that it was not want of money that
had made him hitherto shy of "the good investments" offered him. He
had been sure McLean in their last interview had thought so, and had,
indeed, felt the half-veiled contempt with which the rich young man had
expressed his pity for Mostyn's inability to take advantage at the
right moment of an exceptional chance to play the game of beggaring his
neighbor. Now, he told himself, he would show McLean and his braggart
set that good birth and old family was for once allied with plenty
of money, and he also promised his wounded sensibilities some very
desirable reprisals, every one of which he felt fully competent to take.

It was, after all, a poor compensation, but there was also the gold. He
thanked his father that day fo