"Why!" echoed Lord Charles, thrusting his hands into the huge pockets of his dressing-gown, and eying him with mock reproach. "Can you ask when you remember that my room is exactly underneath yours, and that it sounds as if you had turned this into the den of a traveling menagerie? What are you wearing the carpet out for, Ley?" and he sat down and looked up at the troubled face with that frank sincerity which invites confidence. "I'm in a fix," said Leycester. "Come on," said Lord Charles, curtly. "I can't. You can't help me in this," said Leycester, with a sigh. Lord Charles rose at once. "Then I'll go. I wish I could. What have you been doing, Ley?--something to-night, I expect. Never mind; if I can help you, you'll let me know." Leycester threw him a cigar-case. "Sit down and smoke, Charlie," he said. "I can't open my mind, but I want to think, and you'll help me. Is it late?" "Awfully," said Lord Charles with a yawn. "What a jolly evening it has been. I say, Ley, haven't you been carrying it on rather thick with that pretty girl with the dark eyes?" Leycester paused in his task of lighting a cigar, and looked down at him. "Which girl?" he said, with a little touch of hauteur in his face. "The painter's niece," said Lord Charles. "What a beautiful girl she is! Reminds me of a what-do-you-call-it." "What is that?" "A--a gazelle. It's rather a pity that she should be intended for that saucy lawyer fellow." "What?" asked Lord Leycester, quietly. "Haven't you heard?" said Lord Charles, grimly. "The fellows were talking about it in the billiard-room." "About what?" demanded Lord Leycester, still quietly, though his eyes glittered. Stella the common talk of the billiard-room. It was desecration. "Oh, it was Longford, he knows the man!" "What man?" "This Jasper Adelstone she is engaged to." Lord Leycester held the cigar to his lips, and his teeth closed over it with a sudden fierce passion. Coming upon all that had passed, this was the last straw. "It's a lie!" he said. Lord Charles looked up with a start, then his face grew grave. "Perhaps so," he said; "but, after all, it can't matter to you, Ley." Lord Leycester turned away in silence. CHAPTER XVI. Jasper Adelstone was in love. It was some time before he would bring himself to admit it even to himself, for he was wont to pride himself on his superiority to all attacks of the tender passion. Often and often had he amused himself and his chosen companions by ridiculing the conditions of those weak mortals who allowed themselves to be carried away by what he termed a weak and contemptible affection for the other sex.