story, isnt it? At least, I understood you to say so as
we came along."

"Let him say so, and I'll thrash him like, a dog in the street.
I'll----"

"Whats the use of thrashing a man who will simply hand you over to the
police? and quite right, too! What rot!"

"We shall see. We shall see."

"Very well. Do as you like. You may twist one another's heads off for
what I care. He has had the satisfaction of putting you into a rage, at
all events."

"I am not in a rage."

"Very well. Have it your own way."

"Will you take a challenge to him from me?"

"No. I am not a born fool."

"That is plain speaking."

Marmaduke put his hands into his pockets, and whistled. "I think I will
take myself off," he said, presently.

"As you please," replied Douglas, coldly.

"I will look in on you some day next week, when you have cooled down a
bit. Good-bye."

Douglas said nothing, and Marmaduke, with a nod, went out. Some minutes
later the servant entered and said that Mr. Lind was below.

"What! Back again!" said Douglas, with an oath.

"No, sir. It's old Mr. Lind--Mr. Reginald."

"Did you say I was in?"

"The man belonging to the house did, sir."

"Confound his officiousness! I suppose he must come up."

Reginald Lind entered, and bowed. Douglas placed a chair for him, and
waited, mute, and a little put out. Mr. Lind's eyes and voice shewed
that he also was not at his ease; but his manner was courtly and his
expression grave, as Douglas had, in his boyhood, been accustomed to see
them.

"I am sorry, Sholto," said Mr. Lind, "that I cannot for the present meet
you with the cordiality which formerly existed between us. However
unbearable your disappointment at Marian's marriage may have been, you
should not have taken a reprehensible and desperate means of remedying
it. I speak to you now as an old friend--as one who knew you when the
disparity in our ages was more marked than it is at present."

Douglas bowed.

"I have just heard from Mr. Conolly--whom I met accidentally in Pall
Mall--that you have returned from America. He gave me no further account
of you, except that he had met you and spoken to you here. I hope
nothing unpleasant passed."

"The meeting was not a pleasant one. I shall take steps to make Mr.
Conolly understand that."

"Nothing approaching to violence, I trust."

"No. Mr. Conolly's discretion averted it. I am not sure that a second
interview between us will end so quietly."

"The intervi