"The 'Unicorn!' Robert! Harold, will you be so good as to ask him what he means?" The Earl did as he was bid. "Robert, what do you mean by saying that you have taken a room at the 'Unicorn'?--an inn!--a mere tavern! at the gate of your father's house!" "The 'Unicorn' can hardly be said to be at the gate of Holtye, since it is at a distance of a good five miles." "Stuff, sir! Five miles or fifty, what does it matter? Holtye is your home, and you will be so good as to come home; we've been expecting you; we've been looking forward to your return; I trust that the day is far distant on which you will cease to regard Holtye as your home." "Unless he wishes to break his mother's heart." The interpolation was the lady's. "So no nonsense, sir; get into the carriage and we'll drive you home." "You are very kind; permit me, sir, to finish. It is plain that my mother and you have made up your minds that Miss Lindsay shall not become my wife; you will probably leave no stone unturned which will keep us apart. I appreciate your motives, and though I think them unworthy, I know you think they're for my good; but I have made up my mind that she shall be my wife, and I will stop at nothing which will bring about that desirable consummation. Under these conditions obviously the more we are together the more friction there will be; and therefore, equally obviously, it is desirable that, for the present at least, I should not come to Holtye. But I promise you this, that when she's my wife I'll come--and I'll bring her with me." "You'll do nothing of the kind; if you ever do marry her you'll never set foot inside the door again." This, of course, was the Countess; her son laughed. "You hear my mother, sir! Isn't that conclusive?" He passed through the window and out of sight, the Earl and the Countess staring at the place where he had been. The Earl was the first to speak. "Jemima, what on earth was the use of saying a thing like that? Don't you know him better than to threaten?" "What am I to say? what am I to do? Who'd have children!--they're the cause of suffering and sorrow to their mothers from their cradles to their graves! I wish I'd never had one!" "My dear Jemima, I dare say, also, you wish you had two heads, but you haven't. For my part, I don't know that I regret the line he's taken up." "Harold! Do you wish to see him ruined?" "Not at all; quite the other way; that's exactly it. In cases of this sort, when the man throws over the woman there's a certain amount of odium attached to his conduct--I realize that as clearly as he does; but when she throws him over that's another thing. Robert's pig-headed----" "Like his father!"