"Mr. Askew," chimed in Lady Jim, glad that the mask of twilight was on the younger man's very cross face. "He's just going. You know Mr. Askew, of course, Duke. I met him at Firmingham. Must you really go, Mr. Askew? So sorry! We may meet at Lady Quain's to-night--I look in there for half an hour. Good-bye for the present. So kind of you to see me home from Ranelagh! Very dull, wasn't it?" and, rattling on to drown any too tender word he might let slip, she hustled him to the door. "Our future!" breathed the inconvenient third, opening the gate of paradise most reluctantly. "Even the brutes have instincts, if not sense," snapped Lady Jim, scathingly, and Adam, without Eve, took his solitary way down the stairs, to be dismissed into a cheerless world by an indifferent footman. To prevent interruption, Leah closed the door herself, and switched on the electrics, before she returned to her untimely visitor. "Will you be long, Duke?" she asked, again consulting the clock. "I have to dress for dinner. Mrs. Martin's, you know: a stupid woman with a bad cook. Such a bore!" "I wonder you care to see people when Jim's away," said Pentland, fretfully, and she noted suddenly his aged looks. Lady Jim felt inclined to retort with the proverb of the absent cat and the jubilant mice, but she really felt sorry for the old man's drooping mouth and additional wrinkles. "I won't see any one, if you like, Duke--I'm sure it's no pleasure to make conversation without ideas. Do let me ring for hot tea--you look so tired. Sit down in this chair--and the cushion--there!" She made him comfortable with genuine womanly sympathy, wondering, meanwhile, what was ageing him. "No tea, my dear. I can only wait for a few minutes; my carriage is below. Tired? Yes, I am very tired; worried, also." "Nothing wrong, I hope," murmured Leah, sympathetically. "Jim, my dear--poor Jim! Have you heard about his health lately?" "Oh yes! Last week I received a few lines, and he said that he felt ever so much better. His cough is almost gone." "Ah," said Pentland, sadly; "like all consumptives, he is too hopeful." Leah became nervous and anxious. Had Jim been obliterated at last? "What is it?" she demanded irritably. "Is he--is he?" her tongue could not form the lying word. "Worse--yes, much worse," said the Duke, rubbing his forehead and producing a letter. "This is from Demetrius. We may expect--oh, my poor son!" and he almost broke down. "I don't trust these doctors," remarked Lady Jim, skimming the letter with a feeling that Demetrius was really too imaginative. "They always shout wolf, when the animal is miles away. Don't worry." "But you see, Demetrius says that poor Jim may go off at any moment--and Demetrius is a clever man." "He may be mistaken. I have heard of surprising recoveries." Pentland shook his head, and groaned. "Not Jim. I had a conviction that I should never see him again when we parted in this very room."