"Oh, I don’t know what happened down there, and what I’ve pledged myself to; but at all events there will now be one more on my side, to help me about Vin, and get him out of all this sad trouble. You will help me, won’t you—Hubert?" Of course he was eager to promise anything. "And you say he is sure to get in for Mendover? Why, just think of him now, with everything before him; and how nice it would be for all of us if he had a smart and clever wife, who would hold her own in society, and do him justice, and make us all as proud and fond of her as we are of him. And just fancy the four of us setting out on a winter-trip to Cairo or Jerusalem: wouldn’t it be simply too delicious? The four of us—only the four of us—all by ourselves. Louie Drexel is rather young, to be sure; yet she knows her way about; she’s sharp; she’s clever; she will have some money; and she has cheek enough for anything. And by the way—Hubert—" said she (and always with a pretty little hesitation when she came to his Christian name) "I must really ask you—with regard to Louie Drexel—well—you know—you have been—just a little——" He murmured something about the devotion of a lifetime—the devotion which he had just promised to her—being a very different thing from trivial drawing-room dallyings; whereupon she observed— "Oh, yes, men say so by way of excuse——" "How many men have said so to you?" he demanded, flaring up. "I did not say they had said so to me," she answered sweetly. "Don’t go and be absurdly jealous without any cause whatever. If any one has a right to be jealous, it is I, considering the way you have been going on with Louie Drexel. But of course if there’s nothing in it, that’s all well and done with; and I am of a forgiving disposition, when I’m taken the right way. Now about Vin: can you see anybody who would do better for him than Louie Drexel?" Be sure it was not of Vin Harris, much as he was interested in him, that Lord Musselburgh wished to talk at this moment; but, on the other hand, in the first flush of his pride and gratitude, any whim of hers was law to him; and perhaps it was a sufficient and novel gratification to be able to call her Madge. "I’m afraid," said he, "that Vin is not the kind of person to have his life arranged for him by other people. And besides you must remember, Madge, dear, that you are assuming a great deal. You are assuming that you can show Vin that this old man is an impostor——" "Oh, can there be any doubt of it!" she exclaimed. "Isn’t the story you have told me yourself enough?" Lord Musselburgh looked rather uncomfortable; he was a good-natured kind of person, and liked to think the best of everybody. "I had no right to tell you that story," said he. "But now I have the right to know about that and everything else, haven’t I—Hubert?" said she, with a pretty coyness.