The justice of the remark silenced Vanbrugh. He struggled in vain to resist the conviction that the Duke of Trent was right. A hundred trifling indications of the understanding between the lovers returned upon his mind, like water pouring in through a leak. “Damn the young blackguard!” he growled. “He is just the sort that attracts good women. They think that they can ‘save’ him. I ought to have remembered that.” Trent listened, anxious for some assurance that his warning would not be thrown away. “If I have made a mistake in speaking to you----” He spoke slowly, to let the other interrupt him. “You could not have done me a greater service, Duke. Even if you are mistaken in thinking there is anything in it, I shan’t be the less obliged to you for the warning.” “I should not like Miss Vanbrugh or my brother to know that I had interfered.” “No one shall know. It is a matter entirely between ourselves.” The Home Secretary breathed easily again. “After all, it was a mere accident. You naturally thought I had seen as much as you.” “I am afraid I spoke under the influence of jealousy,” Trent said, determined to do the handsome thing by his conscience, now that all was safe. “My mother had actually asked me to sound you as to the match.” The word stung Sir Bernard. “There will be no match,” he said decisively. “I will see to that.” And Trent was satisfied. When the Vanbrughs were leaving, an hour later, Sir Bernard declined, a little curtly, Lord Alistair’s offer to walk round with them. He watched the parting between Hero and Alistair, and made up his mind that he must interfere at once. In order to give greater weight to his action he formally told his daughter before going to bed that he desired to speak to her before she went out the next morning. Hero’s start and blush at the request showed that she guessed its meaning. The boast which the scientist had made, that he knew every thought in his daughter’s mind, might have been made with more truth by Hero about her father. She had never deluded herself about the view which he would take of such a suitor as Lord Alistair Stuart. Now she spent a restless night revolving in her mind how best to defend the man she loved. Sir Bernard passed a restless night also. The task of a father whose daughter is motherless is a responsible and delicate one; and though the physician had accustomed himself to speak more plainly to Hero than most fathers speak to their daughters, he would have given a great deal to have had a woman’s aid at this crisis. Their conversation took place the next morning in the drawing-room of the villa. The scientist missed his study, but the French seaside house is built on the principle of parsimony in living-rooms and extravagance in bedrooms. The villa contained sleeping accommodation for upwards of twenty persons and a dining-room comfortably seating six.