Godfrey. The occasion is an
important one. If both Lady Moyne and Conroy's private secretary are
to be here, you ought to look your best."

But it is almost impossible to snub Godfrey. He answered me with a
cheerful friendliness which showed that he appreciated my interest in
his appearance.

"I have a new grey suit," he said. "It arrived this morning, and it's
a capital fit. That's the advantage of employing really good tailors.
You can absolutely trust Nicholson and Blackett."

I have often wondered whether Nicholson and Blackett could absolutely
trust Godfrey. I have several times paid his debts, and I do not
intend to do so any more. If they were debts of an intelligible kind I
should not mind paying them occasionally. But Godfrey has no
ostensible vices. I have never heard of his doing anything wild or
disreputable. He does not gamble or borrow money in order to give
jewels to pretty actresses. He owes bills to shop-keepers for ties and
trousers. His next remark showed me that Nicholson and Blackett were
becoming uneasy.

"By the way, Excellency," he said, "I'd be glad if you'd be civil to
the Pringles this afternoon. Get her tea or something."

Mr. Pringle is the manager of the branch of the bank in which Godfrey
keeps his account. I imagine that he and his wife owe their
invitations to my garden parties to the fact that Godfrey's account is
always overdrawn. This demand that I should be especially civil to the
Pringles suggested to me that Godfrey contemplated sending a cheque to
Nicholson and Blackett. I have no particular objection to being civil
to the Pringles. I have to be civil to some one. I readily promised
to get both tea and an ice for Mrs. Pringle; hoping that Godfrey would
go away. He did not. He began talking again about Marion's blue dress.
It was with the greatest difficulty that I got him out of the house
half an hour later by saying that if he did not go home at once he
would not have time to dress himself with the care which the new grey
suit deserved.

It annoys me very much to think Godfrey is heir to my title. It used
to annoy me still more to think that Marion meant to marry him. She
assures me now that she never intended to; but she used to take an
interest in his talk about clothes and he certainly intended to marry
her.

CHAPTER IV

There are some churches in which it is considered desirable to keep
the sexes apart. The men are placed on one side of the central aisle,