"No, send it up here, and don't be long over it." The waiter left the room. And Lord Vincent walked up and down the floor in the most perfect state of indifference to Claudia's distress. She threw herself into a chair and burst into tears, exclaiming: "You do not care for me at all! What a disgusting place to bring a woman--not to say a lady--into! If you possessed the least respect or affection for me you would never treat me so!" "I fancy that I possess quite as much respect and affection for you, Lady Vincent, as you do, or ever did for me," he answered. And Claudia knew that he spoke the truth, and she could not contradict him; but she said: "Suppose there is little love lost between us, still we might treat each other decently. It is infamous to bring me here." "You will not be required to stay here long." "I hope not, indeed!" At this moment the waiter entered to lay the cloth for the viscount's supper. "What time does the first train for Aberdeen leave?" inquired the viscount. "The first train, sir, leaves at four o'clock in the morning, sir; an uncomfortable hour, sir; and it is besides the parliamentary, sir." "That will do. See if my people have come up from the custom house." "Yes, sir; I beg your pardon, sir, what name?" inquired the perplexed waiter. "No matter. Go look for a fellow who has in charge a large number of boxes and a party of male and female gorillas." The man left the room to do his errand and to report below that the person in "Number 13" was a showman with a lot of man-monkeys from the interior of Africa. But Claudia turned to her husband in astonishment. "Did I understand you to inquire about the train to Aberdeen?" "Yes," was the short reply. "But--I thought we were going to London--to Hurstmonceux House--" "Belgravia? No, my dear, we are going to Scotland." "But--why this change of plan? My father and myself certainly understood that I was to be taken to London and introduced to your family and afterwards presented to her majesty." "My dear, the London season is over ages ago. Nobody that is anybody will be found in town until February. The court is at Balmoral, and the world is in Scotland. We go to Castle Cragg." "But why could you not have told me that before?" "My dear, I like to be agreeable. And people who are always setting others right are not so." "Is Lord Hurstmonceux at Castle Cragg?" "The earl is at Balmoral, in attendance upon her majesty." "Then why do we not go to Balmoral?" "The queen holds no drawing rooms there." Claudia suspected that he was deceiving her; but she felt that it would do no good to accuse him of deception. The waiter returned to the room, bringing Lord Vincent's substantial supper, arranged on a tray. "I have inquired below, sir; and there is no one arrived having in charge your gorillas. But there is a person with a panorama, sir; and there is a person with three negro persons, sir," said the waiter.