aining what he had come about was particularly hateful to Miltoun;
but since he had given his word, he nerved himself with secret anger,
and began:

"I promised my mother to ask you a question, Uncle Dennis. You know of
my attachment, I believe?"

Lord Dennis nodded.

"Well, I have joined my life to this lady's. There will be no scandal,
but I consider it my duty to resign my seat, and leave public life
alone. Is that right or wrong according to, your view?"

Lord Dennis looked at his nephew in silence. A faint flush coloured his
brown cheeks. He had the appearance of one travelling in mind over the
past.

"Wrong, I think," he said, at last.

"Why, if I may ask?"

"I have not the pleasure of knowing this lady, and am therefore somewhat
in the dark; but it appears to me that your decision is not fair to
her."

"That is beyond me," said Miltoun.

Lord Dennis answered firmly:

"You have asked me a frank question, expecting a frank answer, I
suppose?"

Miltoun nodded.

"Then, my dear, don't blame me if what I say is unpalatable."

"I shall not."

"Good! You say you are going to give up public life for the sake of your
conscience. I should have no criticism to make if it stopped there."

He paused, and for quite a minute remained silent, evidently searching
for words to express some intricate thread of thought.

"But it won't, Eustace; the public man in you is far stronger than the
other. You want leadership more than you want love. Your sacrifice will
kill your affection; what you imagine is your loss and hurt, will prove
to be this lady's in the end."

Miltoun smiled.

Lord Dennis continued very dryly and with a touch of malice:

"You are not listening to me; but I can see very well that the process
has begun already underneath. There's a curious streak of the Jesuit in
you, Eustace. What you don't want to see, you won't look at."

"You advise me, then, to compromise?"

"On the contrary, I point out that you will be compromising if you try
to keep both your conscience and your love. You will be seeking to have,
it both ways."

"That is interesting."

"And you will find yourself having it neither," said Lord Dennis
sharply.

Miltoun rose. "In other words, you, like the others, recommend me to
desert this lady who loves me, and whom I love. And yet, Uncle, they say
that in your own case----"

But Lord Dennis had risen, too, having lost all the appanage and manner
of old age.

"Of my own