and I consider that quite probable--and
suppose you forgot, as I know you would forget, the difference in your
social position, how would you like to go and ask her to break her
promise to the gentleman to whom she is engaged?"

Master Harry laughed aloud in a somewhat nervous fashion: "Him? Look
here, Jue: leave me out of it--I haven't the cheek to talk of myself
in that connection--but if there was a decent sort of fellow whom that
girl really took a liking to, do you think he would let that elderly
and elegant swell out in Jamaica stand in his way? He would be no
such fool, I can tell you. He would consider the girl first of all.
He would say to himself, 'I mean to make this girl happy; if any one
interferes, let him look out!' Why, Jue, you don't suppose any man
would be frightened by that sort of thing?"

Miss Juliott did not seem quite convinced by this burst of scornful
oratory. She continued quietly, "You forget something, Harry. Your
heroic young man might find it easy to do something wild--to fight
with that gentleman in the West Indies, or murder him, or anything
like that, just as you see in a story--but perhaps Miss Rosewarne
might have something to say."

"I meant if she cared for him," Trelyon said, looking down.

"Granting that also, do you think it likely your hot-headed gentleman
would be able to get a young lady to disgrace herself by breaking her
plighted word and deceiving a man who went away trusting in her?
You say she has a very tender conscience--that she is so anxious to
consult every one's happiness before her own, and all that. Probably
it is true. I say nothing against her. But to bring the matter back to
yourself--for I believe you're hot-headed enough to do anything--what
would you think of her if you or anybody else persuaded her to do such
a treacherous thing?"

"She is not capable of treachery," he said somewhat stiffly. "If
you've got no more cheerful things to talk about, you'd better go to
bed, Jue. I shall finish my cigar by myself."

"Very well, then, Harry. You know your room. Will you put out the lamp
when you have lit your candle?"

So she went, and the young man was left alone in no very enviable
frame of mind. He sat and smoked while the clock on the mantelpiece
swung its gilded boy and struck the hours and half hours with unheeded
regularity. He lit a second cigar, and a third; he forgot the wine.
It seemed to him that he was looking on all the roads of life that lay