“I doubt every one but myself, and I sometimes doubt even my own discretion where my precious one is concerned.” “You will have more reason to doubt by-and-by when your precious one is old enough to be spoilt,” said Theodore. “He has begun to take notice, and before very long he will notice that he is monarch of all he surveys, and that everybody about him is more or less his slave. He will live in that atmosphere till you send him to Eton, and then he will find himself suddenly confronted with the hard, cruel world of strictly Republican boyhood, which will jostle and hustle him with ruthless equality.” * * * * * Lady Cheriton had business in London early in the following week. She was going to London to see her dentist, and her dressmaker, the latter being one of the arbiters of fashion who never go out of their way to wait upon their clients, but who do the rather exact reverence and attention from those clients. She had shopping to do at the West-end of London, that shopping which is so delightful to a lady who spends two-thirds of the year in the country. Above all, she had things to get at the “Stores,” an institution which was dear to Lady Cheriton’s heart, in spite of all her husband’s lectures upon political economy and the necessity of sustaining private enterprise and the shopkeeping interest. Hearing of these engagements, and that Lady Cheriton intended to spend two nights in Victoria Street, Theodore suggested that he should be allowed to accompany her ladyship to London and to arrange a meeting between her and the young woman who called herself Marian Gray. “If you really wish to help her,” he concluded. “I do really wish it,” answered Lord Cheriton earnestly, “and the sooner the matter is put in hand the better pleased I shall be. Shall my wife call on this person?” “She is very proud and very reserved. It might be better to bring about a meeting which would appear accidental. Marian goes for a walk with Miss Newton once or twice a week. I could arrange with her good friend that they should be walking in a particular place—Battersea Park, for instance—at a certain hour, and Lady Cheriton could drive that way with me, and we could meet them. It would be the easiest way of arriving at the truth as to Marian Gray’s identity with Mercy Porter.” “Very good. You might suggest that to my wife.” Lady Cheriton, who was the soul of good-nature, fell in at once with Theodore’s idea.