"Oh! if you are only thinking what people would say," cried Letty. "No," said George, reflectively, but with a mild change of tone. "Damn people! I can pull myself to pieces so much better than they can. You see, darling, you're such an optimist. Now, if you'd only just believe, as I do, that the world is a radically bad place, you wouldn't be so surprised when things of this sort happen. Eh, little person, has it been a radically bad place this last fortnight?" He laid his cheek against her shoulder, rubbing it gently up and down. But something hard and scornful lay behind his caress--something he did not mean to inquire into. "Then you told your mother," said Letty, after a pause, still looking straight before her, "that you would clear her?" "Not at all. I said we could do nothing. I laid it on about the house. And all the time I knew perfectly well in my protesting soul, that if this man's claim is sustainable we should _have_ to pay up. And I imagine that mamma knew it too. You can get out of anybody's debts but your mother's--that's apparently what it comes to. Queer thing, civilisation! Well now"--he sprang to his feet--"let's go and get it over." Letty also rose. "I can't see her again," she said quickly. "I sha'n't come down to lunch. Will she go by the three-o'clock train?" "I will arrange it," said George. They walked through the wood together silently. As they came in sight of the house Letty's face quivered again with restrained passion--or tears. George, whose _sangfroid_ was never disturbed outwardly for long, had by now resigned himself, and had, moreover, recovered that tolerance of woman's various weaknesses which was in him the fruit of a wide, and at bottom hostile, induction. He set himself to cheer her up. Perhaps, after all, if he could sell a particular piece of land which he owned near a neighbouring large town, and sell it well,--he had had offers for it before,--he might be able to clear his mother, and still let Letty work her will on the house. She mustn't take a gloomy view of things--he would do his best. So that by the time they got into the drawing-room she had let her hand slip doubtfully into his again for a moment. But nothing would induce her to appear at lunch. Lady Tressady, having handed over all Shapetsky's papers and all her responsibilities to George, graciously told him that she could understand Letty's annoyance, and didn't wish for a moment to intrude upon her. She then called on Justine to curl her hair, put on a blue shot silk with marvellous pink fronts just arrived from Paris, and came down to lunch with her son in her most smiling mood. She took no notice of his monosyllables, and in the hall, while the butler discreetly retired, she kissed him with tears, saying that she had always known his generosity would come to the rescue of his poor darling mamma. "You will oblige me, mother, by not trying it again too soon," was George's ironical reply as he put her into the carriage.