Thereupon, perceiving that I had something in my sleeve, as the saying is, my caller besought me to confide in him. Without a word I handed him a copy of my cable message sent that afternoon to his lordship: _“Your immediate presence required to prevent a monstrous folly.”_ He brightened as he read it. “You actually mean to say----” he began. “His lordship,” I explained, “will at once understand the nature of what is threatened. He knows, moreover, that I would not alarm him without cause. He will come at once, and the Honourable George will be told what. His lordship has never failed. He tells him what perfectly, and that’s quite all to it. The poor chap will be saved.” My caller was profoundly stirred. “Coming here--to Red Gap--his lordship the Earl of Brinstead--actually coming here! My God! This is wonderful!” He paused; he seemed to moisten his dry lips; he began once more, and now his voice trembled with emotion: “He will need a place to stay; our hotel is impossible; had you thought----” He glanced at me appealingly. “I dare say,” I replied, “that his lordship will be pleased to have you put him up; you would do him quite nicely.” “You mean it--seriously? That would be--oh, inexpressible. He would be our house guest! The Earl of Brinstead! I fancy that would silence a few of these serpent tongues that are wagging so venomously to-day!” “But before his coming,” I insisted, “there must be no word of his arrival. The Honourable George would know the meaning of it, and the woman, though I suspect now that she is only making a show of him, might go on to the bitter end. They must suspect nothing.” “I had merely thought of a brief and dignified notice in our press,” he began, quite wistfully, “but if you think it might defeat our ends----” “It must wait until he has come.” “Glorious!” he exclaimed. “It will be even more of a blow to them.” He began to murmur as if reading from a journal, “‘His lordship the Earl of Brinstead is visiting for a few days’--it will surely be as much as a few days, perhaps a week or more--‘is visiting for a few days the C. Belknap-Jacksons of Boston and Red Gap.’” He seemed to regard the printed words. “Better still, ‘The C. Belknap-Jacksons of Boston and Red Gap are for a few days entertaining as their honoured house guest his lordship the Earl of Brinstead----’ Yes, that’s admirable.” He arose and impulsively clasped my hand. “Ruggles, dear old chap, I shan’t know at all how to repay you. The Bohemian set, such as are possible, will be bound to come over to us. There will be left of it but one unprincipled woman--and she wretched and an outcast. She has made me absurd. I shall grind her under my heel. The east room shall be prepared for his lordship; he shall breakfast there if he wishes. I fancy he’ll find us rather more like himself than he suspects. He shall see that we have ideals that are not half bad.” He wrung my hand again. His eyes were misty with gratitude. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN