"Just so," he answered with a start. "Only it's poor fun having your wedding and your funeral on the same day." "I do not," Lady Ormstork declared, "understand such pusillanimity. After all," she urged, "you are man to man. Why should you be more afraid of the duke than he of you?" "I've no homicidal traditions in my family," Gage explained. "A jealous Spaniard is the very devil," supplemented Peckover, whose experience of foreign temperament was derived from penny serials and half-crown melodrama. "Fact is," added Gage, "what I want is a good time, without any fuss or bother from Spanish dukes or anybody else. I'm willing to do the right thing, so far as it can be done without friction." "A somewhat shallow, not to say unromantic, view of life," was Lady Ormstork's sarcastic comment. "I must confess it never struck me that the Duc de Salolja carried such terror in his absurd person. "He carries a revolver on his absurd person," was Peckover's pointed rejoinder. "Ulrica will under no circumstances be allowed to marry him, even if she wants to," the lady declared, changing her tone. "I have announced to her father that she is going to be Lady Quorn, and am certainly not going to take upon myself the odium of suggesting that Lord Quorn has been frightened out of the match by the first ridiculous little Spaniard who chooses to flourish in his face his family traditions and a--possibly unloaded--revolver." "We didn't go into that question," Peckover remarked with a reminiscent shiver. "The whole business is too droll," said Lady Ormstork with an amused smile. "But of course we cannot submit to the duke's impudent coercion. It is, however, easily obviated. I will take the matter in hand, since you seem reluctant to do so. I am responsible for dear Ulrica's welfare and happiness. It is my business to see the sweet girl does not fall a prey to a foreign fortune-hunter. Yes, dear Lord Quorn, you may leave the matter with absolute confidence in my hands. You may depute me, as Mr. Buffkin has already done, to deal with the Duc de Salolja." Gage did not receive the assurance in the spirit in which it was so confidently given. On the contrary he looked more uncomfortable than ever. "All very well," he said, after an embarrassed pause, "but the more you insist on sticking me up the more he'll feel called on to knock me down. Eh, Percival?" "Right you are," was Peckover's gloomy response. "I'll take care of that," Lady Ormstork assured him. "He won't go for you; he'll go for me," urged Gage. "Not he. I'll draw him off," said the lady. "Suppose he won't be drawn off?" suggested Peckover. "Trust me," replied Lady Ormstork, grandly confident of her powers. "Diplomacy counts for much." "Strikes me it will count revolver shots if we aren't careful," said Gage dryly. Lady Ormstork drew back her mouth in a pitying smile.