They entered an engaging little tea-room with shaded lamps and sofas. Lionel took charge of everything, chose a table, and ordered the cocktails, but the management of the conversation was evidently beyond him. There was a long and awkward silence, while the drinks were coming. No one looked at either of the others. It was Horace who first revived, after two cocktails. “Well,” he observed again, “He’s a handful. You’ll have to keep an eye on him, _I_ can tell you.” Frances was startled; was he talking to her?... She looked up and caught his gaze, melancholy and kindly, fixed on her. “You’ll have all you can manage, with _him_,” he continued. She was alarmed and confused. It wasn’t possible that he thought.... And yet, very evidently, he did think so, for he went on, with a sort of gloomy archness: “I hope he won’t be too much for you.” She was anxious to refute the suggestion of any responsibility for Lionel, to tell this brother, subtly and politely, but unmistakably, that he misread the situation. But she could not, on the spur of the moment, think of anything that would do. “I don’t really know Mr. Naylor very well,” she attempted. Horace smiled. “Plenty of time!” he said. And this time his glance wandered to his brother, and was curiously altered, rested upon that futile young face with limitless fidelity and affection---- “Yes,” he said again, fatuously, “You’ll have your hands full.” Frances had a horrible feeling of being caught in a net. “I’m afraid I can’t undertake such a responsibility,” she said, with a sickly smile. Horace smiled indulgently at her. After a third cocktail, he was becoming a little garrulous on the subject of his brother; partly because he thought it would interest Frankie and partly because it was his great topic anyway. His pride in his brother was rather surprising to Frankie; she couldn’t know, of course, from what a stodgy, obscure family this charming irresponsibility had sprung, couldn’t imagine how audacious his extravagances appeared, how remarkable his social progress; in fine, she couldn’t see him as a Naylor.