you know that Alice has been breaking her heart for you?
I won't have the poor child made miserable, and though I don't in the
least want you to marry her, yet; I cannot have you playing with her."

Lewis had grown suddenly very red.

"I think you are mistaken," he said stiffly. "Miss Wishart does not
care a straw for me. If she is in love with anybody, it is with
Stocks."

"I am much older than you, my dear, and I should know better. I may as
well confess that I hoped it would be Mr. Stocks, but I can't
disbelieve my own eyes. The child becomes wretched whenever she hears
your name."

"You are making me miserably unhappy, because I can't believe a word of
it. I have made a howling fool of myself lately, and I can't be blind
to what she thinks of me."

Lady Manorwater looked pathetic. "Is the great Lewis ashamed of
himself?"

"Not a bit. I would do it again, for it is my nature to, as the hymn
says. I am cut all the wrong way, and my mind is my mind, you know.
But I can't expect Miss Wishart to take that point of view."

His aunt shook a hopeless head. "Your moral nature is warped, my dear.
It has always been the same since you were a very small boy at
Glenavelin, and read the Holy War on the hearthrug. You could never be
made to admire Emmanuel and his captains, but you set your heart on the
reprobates Jolly and Griggish. But get away and look after your guests,
sir."

Lunch came just in time to save five hungry men from an undignified end.
The Glenavelin party looked on with amusement as the ravenous appetites
were satisfied. Mr. Stocks, in a huge good humour, talked discursively
of sport. He inquired concerning the morning's bag, and called up
reminiscences of friends who had equalled or exceeded it. Lewis was
uncomfortable, for he felt that in common civility Mr. Stocks should
have been asked to shoot. He could not excuse himself with the plea of
an unintentional omission, for he had heard reports of the gentleman's
wonderful awkwardness with a gun, and he had not found it in his heart
to spoil the sport of five keen and competent hands.

He dared not look at Alice, for his aunt's words had set his pulses
beating hotly. For the last week he had wrestled with himself, telling
his heart that this lady was beyond his ken for ever and a day, for he
belonged by nature to the clan of despondent lovers. Before, she had
had all the icy reserve, he all the fervours. The hint of some spark of
fire behind the snow