“I don’t want to be inquisitive, Lester. I didn’t come up for that. I’m simply here because the family felt that I ought to come. Mother was so very much distressed that I couldn’t do less than see you for her sake”—he paused, and Lester, touched by the fairness and respect of his attitude, felt that mere courtesy at least made some explanation due. “I don’t know that anything I can say will help matters much,” he replied thoughtfully. “There’s really nothing to be said. I have the woman and the family has its objections. The chief difficulty about the thing seems to be the bad luck in being found out.” He stopped, and Robert turned over the substance of this worldly reasoning in his mind. Lester was very calm about it. He seemed, as usual, to be most convincingly sane. “You’re not contemplating marrying her, are you?” queried Robert hesitatingly. “I hadn’t come to that,” answered Lester coolly. They looked at each other quietly for a moment, and then Robert turned his glance to the distant scene of the city. “It’s useless to ask whether you are seriously in love with her, I suppose,” ventured Robert. “I don’t know whether I’d be able to discuss that divine afflatus with you or not,” returned Lester, with a touch of grim humor. “I have never experienced the sensation myself. All I know is that the lady is very pleasing to me.” “Well, it’s all a question of your own well-being and the family’s, Lester,” went on Robert, after another pause. “Morality doesn’t seem to figure in it anyway—at least you and I can’t discuss that together. Your feelings on that score naturally relate to you alone. But the matter of your own personal welfare seems to me to be substantial enough ground to base a plea on. The family’s feelings and pride are also fairly important. Father’s the kind of a man who sets more store by the honor of his family than most men. You know that as well as I do, of course.” “I know how father feels about it,” returned Lester. “The whole business is as clear to me as it is to any of you, though off-hand I don’t see just what’s to be done about it. These matters aren’t always of a day’s growth, and they can’t be settled in a day. The girl’s here. To a certain extent I’m responsible that she is here. While I’m not willing to go into details, there’s always more in these affairs than appears on the court calendar.” “Of course I don’t know what your relations with her have been,” returned Robert, “and I’m not curious to know, but it does look like a bit of injustice all around, don’t you think—unless you intend to marry her?” This last was put forth as a feeler. “I might be willing to agree to that, too,” was Lester’s baffling reply, “if anything were to be gained by it. The point is, the woman is here, and the family is in possession of the fact. Now if there is anything to be done I have to do it. There isn’t anybody else who can act for me in this matter.”