."

"The deuce!"

"I beg your pardon, Calder; I grow hard of hearing."

"Nothing. Lord Thrapston. Look here, Lord Thrapston----"

"Well, well, my dear boy?"

"Oh, nothing; that is--"

"But she'll be all right in your hands, my boy. You must keep an eye;
on her, don't you know: she'll need a bit o' driving; but I really
don't see why you should come to grief. I don't, 'pon my soul. No.
With tact on your part, you might very well pull through."

"How d'ye mean tact, Lord Thrapston?"

"Oh, amuse her. Let her travel; give her lots of society; don't bother
her with domestic affairs. Don't let her feel she's under any
obligation. That's what she kicks against. So do I; always did."

Calder pulled his mustache. Lord Thrapston had briefly sketched the
exact opposite of his ideal of married life.

"The fact is," continued the old man, "the boy's an uncommon handsome
boy. She can't resist that. No more can I; never could."

There chanced to be a mirror opposite Calder, and he impartially
considered himself. There was, he concluded, every prospect of Miss
Glyn resisting any engrossing passion for him.

"It's very good of you to have told, me all about it," he remarked,
rising. "I'll think it over."

"Yes, do. Of course, I admit she's given you a perfectly good reason
for breaking off your engagement if you like. Mind that. We don't feel
aggrieved, Calder. Act as you think best. We admit we're in the wrong,
but we must stand by what we've done."

"I shouldn't like to give her any pain--"

"Pain! Oh, dear me, no, my dear boy. She won't fret. Make your mind
easy about that."

Calder felt a sudden impulse to disclose to Lord Thrapston his secret
opinion of him, and he recollected, with a pang, that in the course of
so doing he would have to touch on more than one characteristic shared
by the old man and Agatha. Where were his visions of a quiet home in
the country, of freedom from the irksome duties of society, of an
obedient and devoted wife, surrounded by children and flanked by
jampots? He had once painted this picture for Agatha, shortly after she
had agreed to that arrangement which she declined to call a promise of
marriage; and it occurred to him now that she had allowed the subject
to drop without any expression of concurrence. He took leave of Lord
Thrapston and went for a solitary walk. He wanted to think. But the
position of affairs was such that other persons also felt the need of
reflection, and Calde