"You have given me an unexpected pleasure, my boy," he said with a touch of cordiality in his voice. "I have been beastly lonely since Eloise left." He eyed me through his half-closed lids as he lighted a cigar and watched me light mine. I flushed, and I fear he noticed it. Then I broke abruptly into my subject. "It is your help and advice I want to-night, sir. I have come to talk of Elsie." He looked at me surprised, holding a half-lit match in his finger. Instantly the match was snuffed out with a sudden twist and a smile broke over his face. "It’s all right, Jack," he said warmly; "I think I can guess—I have seen for a month that you have cut me out—all of us—why—" "I fear you are mistaken, Colonel Goff," I said quietly. "I know how much you think of her, that you are her friend, and I thought the two of us together might help her out of an unfortunate affair." He turned on me quickly. "Why, what has happened? I saw her to-day; she was all right." "Nothing has happened yet," I said; "nor is it likely to now, since I am going to do some acting myself, with your help." I handed him the note. I had heard my old grandsire say that in critical places Goff was always coolest. He smoked while he read, not a muscle moving. "This thing is so out of all our English ideas of sense and decency, and so unusual, that I’m lost in it," he said quietly at last. "It seems that he has actually induced my romantic little girl to agree to a secret clandestine marriage with him, and his regiment leaves for the Philippines to-morrow, marry her secretly, and claim her when he comes back!" Instead of being angry Goff laughed, half ironically but with intent behind it. He rose and walked to the door, calling his butler. "Tell James to saddle my horse at once," I heard him say. Then he closed the door and came up to me. "Jack, this is the damnedest piece of blackguardism I ever had to kick out of my mind; we’ll settle it in a jiffy with him,—just as I’d kick a little cur out of my pack of running hounds. You’ll ride with me, of course, and witness it." "I will, Colonel Goff," I said sullenly, "if you’ll let me do it in my own way. It is I who want you to witness it." He slapped me on the shoulder. "You’re all right, Jack, I’ve always known that: and if it is nothing rash—you see if it were, why, the child would be talked about. Oh, yes, damn him, if it wasn’t for her I’d kill him myself." "Colonel Goff," I said rising, "I’m going to thrash him to-night before I go to bed. I’m going to do it in my own way."