toast, and anything does for me. He
has gone to the kennels, has he?"

"He said he should. What was he saying last night?"

"Nothing particular. He has a way of blowing up, you know; and he
looks at one just as if he expected that everybody was to do just
what he chooses."

"You didn't quarrel?"

"Not at all; I went off to bed without saying a word. I hate jaws. I
shall just put it right this morning; that's all."

"Was it about me, Gerard?"

"It doesn't signify the least."

"But it does signify. If you and he were to quarrel would it not
signify to me very much? How could I stay here with them, or go up to
London with them, if you and he had really quarrelled? You must tell
me. I know that it was about me." Then she came and sat close to
him. "Gerard," she continued, "I don't think you understand how much
everything is to me that concerns you."

When he began to reflect, he could not quite recollect what it was
that Lord Chiltern had said to him. He did remember that something
had been suggested about a brother and sister which had implied that
Adelaide might want protection, but there was nothing unnatural or
other than kind in the position which Lord Chiltern had declared
that he would assume. "He seemed to think that I wasn't treating you
well," said he, turning round from the breakfast-table to the fire,
"and that is a sort of thing I can't stand."

"I have never said so, Gerard."

"I don't know what it is that he expects, or why he should interfere
at all. I can't bear to be interfered with. What does he know about
it? He has had somebody to pay everything for him half-a-dozen times,
but I have to look out for myself."

"What does all this mean?"

"You would ask me, you know. I am bothered out of my life by ever so
many things, and now he comes and adds his botheration."

"What bothers you, Gerard? If anything bothers you, surely you will
tell me. If there has been anything to trouble you since you saw your
father why have you not written and told me? Is your trouble about
me?"

"Well, of course it is, in a sort of way."

"I will not be a trouble to you."

"Now you are going to misunderstand me! Of course, you are not a
trouble to me. You know that I love you better than anything in the
world."

"I hope so."

"Of course I do." Then he put his arm round her waist and pressed her
to his bosom. "But what can a man do? When Lady Chiltern recommended
that I should go to my father and tell him,