“Yes. I mean that I will this very evening propose to Madeline Croston under your nose, and I bet you five pounds she accepts me.” “Impossible,” said Bottles again. “Besides, if she did you don’t want to marry her.” “Marry her! No, indeed. _I_ am not mad. I shall have to get out of the scrape as best I can—always supposing my view of the lady is correct.” “Excuse me,” said Bottles with a gasp, “but I must ask you—in short, have _you_ ever been on affectionate terms with Madeline?” “Never, on my honour.” “And yet you think she will marry you if you ask her, even after what took place with me yesterday?” “Yes, I do.” “Why?” “Because, my boy,” replied Sir Eustace with a cynical smile, “I have eight thousand a year and you have eight hundred—because I have a title and you have none. That you may happen to be the better fellow of the two will, I fear, not make up for those deficiencies.” Bottles with a motion of his hand waved his brother’s courtly compliment away, as it were, and turned on him with a set white face. “I do not believe you, Eustace,” he said. “Do you understand what you make out this lady to be when you say that she could kiss me and tell me that she loved me—for she did both yesterday—and promise to marry you to-day?” Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. “I think that the lady in question has done something like that before, George.” “That was years ago and under pressure. Now, Eustace, you have made this charge; you have upset my faith in Madeline, whom I hope to marry, and I say, prove it—prove it if you can. I will stake my life you cannot.” “Don’t agitate yourself, my dear fellow; and as to betting, I would not risk more than a fiver. Now oblige me by stepping behind those velvet curtains—_a la_ ‘School for Scandal’—and listening in perfect silence to my conversation with Lady Croston. She does not know that you are here, so she will not miss you. You can escape when you have had enough of it, for there is a door through on to the landing, and as we came up I noticed that it was ajar. Or if you like you can appear from between the curtains like an infuriated husband on the stage and play whatever _role_ occasion may demand. Really the situation has a laughable side. I should enjoy it immensely if _I_ were behind the curtain too. Come, in you go.” Bottles hesitated. “I can’t hide,” he said. “Nonsense; remember how much depends on it. All is fair in love or war. Quick; here she comes.”