She was gone before he could say a word, leaving him overcome with anger at the flippant manner in which she spoke. Was she in jest or earnest. He could not tell. Perhaps she said one thing and meant another. He could not tell. Perchance--oh, women were all alike, they liked to put their victim on a sharp hook and watch him wriggle painfully to be free. "She's a coquette!" "Who? Miss Valpy?" asked Toby, overhearing. "No, Miss Pethram; but I dare say her friend's no better." "I'm afraid not!" sighed Mr. Clendon, dismally; "it's six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. But what ails my Archibald? His brow is overcast." "Oh! rubbish," growled Archibald, rudely; "come and smoke." The smoking-room was quite empty, so the young men established themselves in two comfortable armchairs, and devoted their energies to the consumption of tobacco. Clendon preferred the frivolous cigarette, but Archie produced with loving care a well coloured meerschaum, which had been his companion for many years. "This is a travelled pipe," he said to his friend when the blue smoke was rolling in clouds from his mouth, "a very Ulysses of pipes. It has been in far countries and knoweth the ways of the stranger." "Good idea for a story," observed Toby, who was always on the look-out for copy. "'The Tale of a Pipe in ten Fills.' Egad! I think it ought to go capitally. It's so difficult to get an idea nowadays." Maxwell, luxuriating in his pipe, grunted in a manner which might have meant anything, so Toby promptly attacked him on his want of manners. "You might speak to a fellow when a fellow speaks to you! I tell you what, Archie, you've changed for the worse since we were at school together. Then you were a gregarious animal, and now you are an unsociable beast." "Don't call names, my good man! I can't help being quiet. My thoughts are far away." "Pish! not so very far." "Well, perhaps not." "Have you asked her to marry you?" "Hardly! I've only known her a fortnight, and besides, I've got no money." "No; but she has!" "I don't want to live on my wife. I'm going away to South America." "Never to see her again, I suppose," said Toby, ironically; "don't talk nonsense, Archie. You're madly in love with Miss Pethram and don't want to lose sight of her." "True! but I must when she goes away from here." "Not a bit of it. Listen, I will be your good angel." Maxwell laughed grimly at the idea. "I will be your good angel," repeated Toby, imperturbably, "and take you down with me to Deswarth." "To your father's house? I thought you weren't friends with your governor."