“Not until the second post, and then I was honored with a somewhat voluminous epistle informing me in the politest way possible that I was an unsympathetic brute, with whom it was impossible for a woman with any natural sensibility to be happy, and finally that she had found some one to really care for, and believed that the future would compensate for the past.” “Confoundedly cool!” exclaimed Sir Lawrence, apparently more moved than the earl himself. “Or, rather, well put. Women of Pauline’s caliber are always insolent, unless you make them fear you; and that sort of thing was never in my line.” “With whom is she gone? Do you know?” “Oh, yes! I saw it in the _Court Chronicle_. The man whom she thinks able to sympathize with a sensitive, tender creature is a Russian--Prince Czarski--and is married to a handsome Irish woman, whose husband, Jack O’Hara, was in your regiment, I believe.” “Poor Norah! Her second venture was not a very fortunate one, then. What could she have been thinking of when she married that man?” “Of pin-money, I suppose, like all women,” answered Lord Teignmouth cynically; “and from that point of view she has done very well. I heard yesterday that she has taken Lady Gorman’s house, in Mayfair, for the season; so that she must be pretty well provided for. Have you any soda and brandy in the house?” he concluded abruptly, as he leaned back in his chair and passed his hand over his damp forehead. “This sort of thing is very upsetting, even when you are a philosopher.” Sir Lawrence rang, and ordered what he required; and when Lord Teignmouth had drunk off a tumbler of the mixture, he went on gravely: “The worst of it is, my wife has played a part all along. You remember that Belmont affair?” “Quite well,” answered Sir Lawrence, who thought he knew what was coming. “Well, she was to blame there, and not poor Gwen, after all, it seems. Belmont had been her lover before even she married me, and she corresponded with and met him secretly. If he had been as rich as the Russian prince, she would probably have sympathized with him to the same extent; but his poverty stood in the way of his preferment,” added the earl, with, a bitter laugh. “I am sorry she fooled me so completely; but Gwen is a generous soul, and knows how helpless men are in the hands of artful, designing women, so that, perhaps, she will forgive me, if you ask her. Tell her Pauline has done her one good turn, anyhow--she has made her boy my heir presumptive to the earldom of Teignmouth.” “But surely you will get a divorce and marry again?” “I shall get a divorce, probably; but I shall never marry again. ‘Once bit, twice shy,’ you know.” “Do you mind telling me who enlightened you about that affair of Belmont’s?”