The learned professor, being a little deaf, did not quite catch her words. He was, in addition, much given to the jocular style when addressing the weaker sex, which he held to have been created for the sole purpose of exercising the social qualities of man. So, an appropriate remark having occurred to him, he came forward primed with it. "Charity, Lady Maud, is, as a rule said to cover a multitude of sins; in this case it conceals the virtues." And he was greatly pleased with himself when everybody laughed. "On the whole, I retract 'original,'" continued Lady Maud gravely; "so you needn't defend that proposition, professor. How can we be original? There is nothing new under the sun; even one's jokes have been appropriated by past generations. Everything has been used up." "Not everything," said Will Lockhart. "To return to Roederay, for instance. You will be next-door neighbours to the Gulf Stream. It is not used up; far from it. _That_, Lady Maud, will be another of the horrid things which appeal to the imagination. Night and day--day and night--" She shrugged her pretty bare shoulders. "There is the Gulf Stream I like," she replied, pointing to the crowd still surging onwards. "Why should you abuse it? We go on day and night, night and day. Upwards and onwards--to heaven, for all you know. I defy you and your old-world ideas and romances. We are going down to Roederay to paddle about where we choose, catalogue your dead people and their beliefs as we choose, and we are going to eat our dinner and kill everything we see. There is one of the slayers in the stream, Arthur Weeks, the best shot in England, so people say. Ah! Captain Weeks, Mr. Wilson tells me you are coming to Roederay. I am glad." "Charity, Lady Maud," began the gallant warrior. "That is not your bird, Captain Weeks! Mr. Lockhart, my cousin Eustace, and the professor have all blazed away at that poor joke already. Of course, your gun would bring it down, but please be merciful. Let it go for another day." "That reminds me, Gordon," said the captain confidentially to Lady Maud's cousin, when the laugh had ceased, "I was speaking to old Snapshot about Roederay, and he assures me that the birds lie like stones in that part. Something, he said, to do with the Gulf Stream--but I don't know much of these scientific things, Lady Maud. Only I assure you he declares you can kick 'em up and shoot 'em like chickens on the last day of the season." There was a solemn pause. The advantages of Roederay seemed exhausted on all sides. "If some one will give me his arm," said Lady Maud, rising, "I will go upstairs--to Paradise, perhaps, Mr. Lockhart. I really must say how do you do to our hostess before going on to the next." I