"You mean the enquiry?"

"Yes; I mean the enquiry whether my son and your nephew is a bastard. I
know he put you up to it. Am I right in saying that he has not
abandoned it?"

"I think you are right."

"Then by heaven I'll ruin him. He may have a little money, but I don't
think his purse is quite so long as mine. I'll lead him such a dance
that he shall wish he had never heard the name of Germain. I'll make
his deanery too hot to hold him. Now, George, as between you and me
this shall be all passed over. That poor child is not strong, and after
all you may probably be my heir. I shall never live in England, and you
are welcome to the house. I can be very bitter, but I can forgive; and
as far as you are concerned I do forgive. But I expect you to drop your
precious father-in-law." Lord George was again silent. He could not say
that he would drop the Dean; but at this moment he was not sufficiently
fond of the Dean to rise up in his stirrups and fight a battle for him.
"You understand me," continued the Marquis, "I don't want any assurance
from you. He is determined to prosecute an enquiry adverse to the
honour of your family, and in opposition to your settled convictions. I
don't think that after that you can doubt about your duty. Come and
see me again before long; won't you?" Lord George said that he would
come again before long, and then departed.

As he walked home his mind was sorely perplexed and divided. He had
made up his mind to take no further share in the Popenjoy
investigation, and must have been right to declare as much to his
brother. His conscience was clear as to that. And then there were many
reasons which induced him to feel coldly about the Dean. His own wife
had threatened him with her father. And the Dean was always driving
him. And he hated the Dean's money. He felt that the Dean was not quite
all that a gentleman should be. But, nevertheless, it behoved him above
all things to be honest and straightforward with the Dean.

There had been something in his interview with his brother to please
him, but it had not been all delightful.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE BALL.

How was he to keep faith with the Dean? This was Lord George's first
trouble after his reconciliation with his brother. The Dean was back at
the deanery, and Lord George mistrusted his own power of writing such a
letter as would be satisfactory on so abstruse a matter. He knew that
he should fail in making