Vashti's eyes rested on him for a second or two, in a kind of wondering despair at his obtuseness. But she controlled herself to reply quite patiently: "At any rate, it was wrong of me to encourage the men's resentment, and I came here this morning to beg your pardon." He acknowledged this with a bow, but stood silent for a moment, eyeing her. "You are a relative of Major Vigoureux?" he asked, after a pause. "No." "You are staying with him, I understand?" "No." Vashti shook her head, with a smile. "But I very much want you to forgive me," she went on; "for I have another favour to ask you." Again he bowed slightly. "You give my curiosity no rest, Miss Cara, and I perceive you mean to satisfy it only in your own way. As for the--er--incident we have been discussing, pray consider that--so far as you are concerned--I dismiss it." He did so with a slight wave of the hand. "You wish to ask me a favour?" "I do. I came to plead with you; to say a word on behalf of Eli Tregarthen, your tenant on Saaron Island." The Lord Proprietor started. "Are you at the bottom of that also?" he asked, angrily. Vashti's eyes opened wide in astonishment. "I beg your pardon?" she murmured. "I do not understand." "It seems to me," he caught her up, "that for a total stranger, you are losing remarkably little time." "In what, sir?" she demanded, facing him fairly, with a lift of her handsome chin. "In subverting my authority, ma'am; or, rather, in prompting others to subvert it.... Though, to be sure," he went on, in sarcastic wrath, "it may again be an accident that I happened on Eli Tregarthen less than an hour ago, and that he used very insolent language to me in the presence of my agent." "It was not only an accident," said Vashti, slowly, and with patent sincerity; "it was one that, since I came here to urge his suit, I would have given a great deal to prevent." She paused, and for a moment seemed to be musing. "Must I understand, then, that you refuse to hear a word in his favour?" "The man is a fool!" Sir Caesar clasped his hands behind him under his coat-tails, and paced the room. "His insolence to me apart, he is a complete fool! I offer him the choice of two farms--either one of them acre for acre, worth twice the rental of Saaron.... I simply cannot understand!" "No," said Vashti, with a little sigh, "you cannot understand." He had reached the fireplace, and wheeled round on her, his back to the hearth and his legs a-straddle. "What can I not understand?" he demanded.