So this was the end--he loved her, but his ideas of principle held.--And if she was only a common girl and so debarred from being a Duchess--the Duke should see that no aristocrat of his own class could be more game. Lady Garribardine found her still writing diligently when she came in just before luncheon would be announced, and she wondered what made the girl look so pale. "It is quite too bad that you have sat here all this time," she exclaimed. "I won't have you bother with another word. This was to be your holiday and your amusement, this visit to Valfreyne, and you have been cooped up in the house working as if at home." The Duke looked extremely stern at luncheon and was punctiliously polite to everyone, but those in his immediate vicinity were conscious that a stiffness had fallen upon the atmosphere which asphyxiated conversation. Lady Garribardine was well acquainted with the signs of all his moods. This one, she knew, resulted from pain of some sort, and mental perturbation. What had occurred between him and Katherine? Could they have quarrelled? This must be ascertained at the earliest possible moment. After luncheon they were all to motor to an old castle for a picnic tea, a beautiful ruin of a former habitation of the Monluces about five miles away. Katherine should go with the younger people, and she should have the Duke to herself. His manner was certainly preoccupied, and he spoke only of ordinary things as they went through the park. "The party has been the greatest success, Mordryn. Are you pleased? Everyone has enjoyed it." "Yes, I suppose it has been all right, thanks to your admirable qualities as hostess, dear friend. But how irksome I find all parties! I have been too long away from the world." "I thought you seemed so cheery, Mordryn, yesterday, but to-day you look as glum as a church. You must shake yourself up, nothing is so foolish as giving way to these acquired habits of solitude and separation from your kind." "I am growing old, Seraphim." "Stuff and nonsense!" Her Ladyship cried. "You have never looked more vigorous--or more attractive, and you are not subject to liver attacks or the gout--so you have no excuse in the world for this doleful point of view." "Perhaps not--It is stupid to want the moon." "There are no such things as moons for Dukes; they are always lamps which can be secured in the hand." "Not without fear of combustion or fusing as the case might be." "Nothing venture nothing have. No man ought to sit down and abandon his moon chase--if he wants it badly enough he will get it." "In spite of his conscience?" Her Ladyship looked at him shrewdly--now was a moment for indicating her sentiments she felt--he might understand her as he so pleased. "No, never in spite of his conscience, but in spite of custom or tradition or any other man-made barrier."