ng that since
he's been in a hot climate he knowed what it was to be tempted himself
when he was a bit down on his luck or a bit up. Pratts would never have
owned to that." The village always spoke of Mr. Pratt in the plural
without a prefix. "I've been to a sight of temperance meetings,
because," with indulgence, "master likes it, tho' I always has my glass,
as is natural. But I never heard one of the speakers kind of settle to
it like that. That's what the folks say; that for all he was a born
gentleman he spoke to 'em as man to man, not as if we was servants or
childer."

CHAPTER XIX

Le bruit est pour le fat.
La plainte est pour le sot.
L'honnete homme trompe
S'en va et ne dit mot.
--M. DELANONI

"And so you cannot persuade Miss Gresley to come to us next week?" said
Lord Newhaven, strolling into the dining-room at Westhope Abbey, where
Rachel and Dick were sitting at a little supper-table laid for two in
front of the high altar. The dining-room had formerly been the chapel,
and the carved stone altar still remained under the east window.

Lord Newhaven drew up a chair, and Rachel felt vaguely relieved at his
presence. He had a knack of knowing when to appear and when to efface
himself.

"She can't leave her book," said Rachel.

"Her first book was very clever," said Lord Newhaven, "and, what was
more, it was true. I hope for her own sake she will outgrow her love of
truth, or it will make deadly enemies for her."

"And good friends," said Rachel.

"Possibly," said Lord Newhaven, looking narrowly at her, and almost
obliged to believe that she had spoken without self-consciousness. "But
if she outgrows all her principles, I hope, at any rate, she won't
outgrow her sharp tongue. I liked her ever since she first came to this
house, ten years ago, with Lady Susan Gresley. I remember saying that
Captain Pratt; who called while she was here, was a 'bounder.' And Miss
Gresley said she did not think he was quite a bounder, only on the
boundary-line. If you knew Captain Pratt, that describes him exactly."

"I wish she had not said it," said Rachel, with a sigh. "She makes
trouble for herself by saying things like that. Is Lady Newhaven in the
drawing-room?"

"Yes, I heard her singing 'The Lost Chord' not ten minutes ago."

"I will go up to her," said Rachel.

"I do believe," said Lord Newhaven, when Rachel had departed, "that she
has an affection for Miss G