u must have a kindness for him in spite of all he has done to disgrace
and discredit us--that he goes not by way of Holborn Hill and Tyburn."

She looked at him, very white from suppressed fury. "I do believe you
had been glad had it been so."

"Nay," he answered, "I had been sorry for Mr. Caryll's sake."

"And for his own?"

"Pshaw!"

"Are you a father?" she wondered contemptuously.

"To my eternal shame, ma'am!" he flung back at her. He seemed, indeed,
a changed man in more than body since Mr. Caryll's duel with Lord
Rotherby. "No more, ma'am--no more!" he cried, seeming suddenly to
remember the presence of Mr. Caryll, who sat languidly drawing figures
on the ground with the ferrule of his cane. He turned to ask the
convalescent how he did. Her ladyship rose to withdraw, and at that
moment Leduc made his appearance with a salver, on which was a bowl of
soup, a flask of Hock, and a letter. Setting this down in such a manner
that the letter was immediately under his master's eyes, he further
proceeded to draw Mr. Caryll's attention to it. It was addressed in
Sir Richard Everard's hand. Mr. Caryll took it, and slipped it into his
pocket. Her ladyship's eyebrows went up.

"Will you not read your letter, Mr. Caryll?" she invited him, with an
amazingly sudden change to amiability.

"It will keep, ma'am, to while away an hour that is less pleasantly
engaged." And he took the napkin Leduc was proffering.

"You pay your correspondent a poor compliment," said she.

"My correspondent is not one to look for them or need them," he answered
lightly, and dipped his spoon in the broth.

"Is she not?" quoth her ladyship.

Mr. Caryll laughed. "So feminine!" said he. "Ha, ha! So very
feminine--to assume the sex so readily."

"'Tis an easy assumption when the superscription is writ in a woman's
hand."

Mr. Caryll, the picture of amiability, smiled between spoonfuls. "Your
ladyship's eyes preserve not only their beauty but a keenness beyond
belief."

"How could you have seen it from that distance, Sylvia?" inquired his
practical lordship.

"Then again," said her ladyship, ignoring both remarks, "there is the
assiduity of this fair writer since Mr. Caryll has been in case to
receive letters. Five billets in six days! Deny it if you can, Mr.
Caryll."

Her playfulness, so ill-assumed, sat more awkwardly upon her than her
usual and more overt malice towards him.

"To what end should I deny it?" he replied, and added in