"Fiddlesticks! Honor and duty! Nothing of the kind. It was a dirty deed, and he is a dirty fellow to have done it. There was some decent way out of the dilemma without going through the Police Court to find it. Grant me patience with such bouncing, swaggering, selfish patriotism! A penny's worth of common-sense and good feeling would have been better; but it was his humor to be revengeful and ill-natured, and he is, of course, swayed by his inclinations. Let us forget the creature." "With all my soul." "The stories are various about Maria going to General Clinton and begging her lover's life with such distraction that he could not refuse it to her. Which story is the true one?" "They are all lies, I assure you, Madame. It was Lord Medway who begged Harry Bradley's life." "But why?" Neil paused a minute, and then answered softly, "For Maria's sake." "Oh, I begin to understand." "She has promised to marry him when she is of age--then, or before." "I am very glad. Medway is a man full of queer kinds of goodness. When the Robinsons and Blundells, when Joan Attwood and Kitty Errol and all the rest of the beauties, hear the news, may I be there to see? Is it talkable yet?" "No, not yet. Maria has told no one but me, and I have told no one but you. Medway is to see my father and mother; after that--perhaps. He has not called since the arrangement; he told me 'he was doing the best thing under the circumstances.'" "Of course he is. Medway understands women. He knows that he is making more progress absent than he would present. Come, now, things are not so bad, socially. Mrs. Gordon and Angelica Jacobus will look after Maria; and, though women can always be abominable enough to their own sex, I think Maria will soon be beyond their shafts. Now, it is business I must speak of. Patrick Huges, my agent, is robbing me without rhyme or reason. I had just sent him packing when I met you. The position is vacant. Will you manage my affairs for me? The salary is two hundred pounds a year." "Madame, the offer is a great piece of good fortune. From this hour, if you wish it, I will do your business as if it were my own." "Thank you, Neil. In plain truth, it will be a great kindness to me. We will go over the rascal's accounts to-morrow, and he will cross the river to-night if he hears that Neil Semple is to prosecute the examination." Then Neil rose to leave. Madame's sympathy and help had made a new man of him; he felt able to meet and master his fate, whatever it might be. At the last moment she laid her hand upon his arm. "Neil," she asked, "Has not this great outrage opened your eyes a little. Do you still believe in the justice or clemency of the King?" "It was not the King." "It was the King's representatives. If such indignity is possible when we are still fighting, what kind of justice should we get if we were conquered?"