XV. Results in London 162 XVI. For the Birthday List 170 XVII. In the Matter of a Trust 184 XVIII. The Plume-Hunters’ Dinner-Party 198 XIX. Subjects for Matrimony 213 XX. At Point Sebastian 224 XXI. The Cyclone 235 XXII. Mr. Shelf’s Little Surprise 250 XXIII. Decisions 263 XXIV. A Flight and a Resting-place 277 XXV. Closing Strands 288 XXVI. The Lucky Man 295 HONOR OF THIEVES. CHAPTER I. THE ANTECEDENTS OF PATRICK ONSLOW. Miss Rivers picked out the name of Patrick Onslow in the society paper which lay upon her knee, and drew idle circles round it with a pink ball-pencil. Fairfax tugged at his mustache, and returned to the subject which they had been discussing. “The fellow has,” said Fairfax, “a genial insolence of manner which seems rather taking with some people. But I confess I shouldn’t have thought him the man you would have cared to see twice, Amy.” “You’re prejudiced, obviously; and I’ve a good mind to say maliciously prejudiced. I don’t know how much you saw of him, because I can’t be invited to a Wanderers’ Club dinner; you don’t know how much I saw of him, because you missed some distant train and didn’t come here to the ball last night. But I’ll tell you: I saw all I could. He’s perfectly and entirely charming. He’s been everywhere, done everything, and he isn’t a bit _blasé_.” “I heard,” said Fairfax, “that Mrs. Shelf was lionizing Onslow round last night as the great traveler. Does he belong to the advertising variety of globe-trotter? Did he sit in a side room and hold a small audience spellbound with a selection from his adventures?” Miss Rivers shrugged her shoulders. “Not he. But you know what Mrs. Shelf is when she gets any show person at one of her functions. The poor man had to stand it for a while, because she held on to him as though he might have been her fan. But he escaped as soon as he decently could by saying he wanted to dance. He asked me to give him the fourth waltz. I did it out of sheer pity, because I saw Mrs. Shelf’s thumbscrews were making him writhe.” “’Shows how little a man knows about the girl he’s engaged to. Now, I had always imagined that, having the pick of the men, you invariably wrote down the best dancers, and never saddled yourself with a stranger who was a very possible duffer.”