usual coolness, and fixed his keen
gaze upon Hugo in a way which that young man found a little
embarrassing. "You told me that Brian--as we may still call
him--intended to claim his old name once more. Then you said that he
meant to marry Miss Murray under the name of Stretton. You will remark
that these two intentions are incompatible; he cannot do both these
things."

Hugo felt that he had blundered.

"I spoke hastily," he said, with an affectation of ingenuous frankness,
which sat very well upon his youthful face. "I believe that his
intentions are to preserve the name of Stretton, and to marry Miss
Murray under it."

"Then I will tell Mr. Grattan to take the necessary steps to-morrow,"
said Dino, rising, as if to hint that the interview had now come to an
end.

Hugo looked at him with surprised, incredulous eyes.

"Oh, Mr. Vasari," he said, naively, "don't let us part on these
unfriendly terms. Perhaps you will think better of the matter, and more
kindly of Brian, if we talk it over a little more."

"At the present moment, I think talk will do more harm than good, Mr.
Luttrell."

"Won't you write yourself to Brian?" faltered Hugo, as if he hardly
dared to make the suggestion.

"No, I think not. You will tell him my decision."

"I'm afraid I have been a bad ambassador," said Hugo, with an air of
boyish simplicity, "and that I have offended you."

"Not at all." Dino held out his hand. "You have spoken very wisely, I
think. Do not let me lose your esteem if I claim what I believe to be my
rights."

Hugo sighed. "I suppose we ought to be enemies--I don't know," he said.
"I don't like making enemies--won't you come and dine with me to-night,
just to show that you do not bear me any malice. I have rooms in town;
we can be there in a few minutes. Come back with me and have dinner."

Dino tried to evade the invitation. He would much rather have been
alone; but Hugo would take no denial. The two went out together without
summoning the landlady: Hugo took his companion by the arm, and walked
for a little way down the street, then summoned a hansom from the door
of a public-house, and gave an address which Dino did not hear. They
drove for some distance. Dino thought that his new friend's lodgings
were situated in a rather obscure quarter of London; but he made no
remark in words, for he knew his own ignorance of the world, and he had
never been in England before. Hugo's lodgings appeared to be on the
second-