"It depends upon what you understand by devoting myself. Beyond a doubt, Lady Ogram would have approved the idea as you put it." "And would she not have given me her confidence as its representative?" asked Dyce, smiling. "Up to a certain point. Lady Ogram desired, for instance, to bear the expenses of your contest at Hollingford, and I should like to carry out her wish in the matter." A misgiving began to trouble Lashmar's sanguine mood. He searched his companion's face; it seemed to him to have grown more emphatic in expression; there was a certain hardness about the lips which he had not yet observed. Still, Constance looked friendly, and her eyes supported his glance. "Thank you," he murmured, with some feeling. "And, if, by chance, I should be beaten? You wouldn't lose courage? We must remember--" "You have asked me many questions," Constance interrupted quietly. "Let me use the privilege of frankness which we grant each other, and ask you one in turn. Your private means are sufficient for the career upon which you are entering?" "My private means?" He gazed at her as if he did not understand, the smile fading from his lips. "Forgive me if you think I am going too far--" "Not at all!" Dyce exclaimed, eagerly. "It is a question you have a perfect right to ask. But I thought you knew I had _no_ private means." "No, I wasn't aware of that," Constance replied, in a voice of studious civility. "Then how do you propose--?" Their eyes encountered. Constance did not for an instant lose her self-command; Lashmar's efforts to be calm only made his embarrassment more obvious. "I had a small allowance from my father till lately," he said. "But that has come to an end. It never occurred to me that you misunderstood my position. Surely I have more than once hinted to you how poor I was? I had no intention of misleading you. Lady Ogram certainly knew----" "She knew you were not wealthy, but she thought you had a competence. I told her so, when she questioned me. It was a mistake, I see, but a very natural one." "Does it matter, now?" asked Dyce, his lips again curling amiably. "I should suppose it mattered much. How shall you live?" "Let us understand each other. Do you withdraw your consent to Lady Ogram's last wish?" "That wish, as you see, was founded on a misunderstanding." "But," exclaimed Lashmar, "you are not speaking seriously?" "Quite. Lady Ogram certainly never intended the money she had left in trust to me to be used for your private needs. Reflect a moment, and you will see how impossible it would be for me to apply the money in such a way." "Reflection," said Dyce, with unnatural quietness, "would only increase my astonishment at your ingenuity. It would have been much simpler and better to say at once that you had changed your mind. Can you for a moment expect me to believe that this argument really justifies you in breaking your promise?"