"I'm not a bit afraid of you, De Lacy," said my lady, still waving her large fan. "Though I know you're a bad lot, still I remember that some good people loved and trusted you once upon a time, so I hope the Lord may yet change your heart." "Ah, thank you!" said Sir Rupert shortly. I guessed that my lady's reference was to my grandfather, and that it had angered Sir Rupert. "Well, your reason, madam, for desiring an interview," he said with a slight barring of his strong yellow teeth, "since it is not for the pleasure of my company." "You have a grandson, Sir Rupert." "I have, madam." "A charming youth," said my lady pensively. "I congratulate you upon him!" "Did you send for me to say so, Lady O'Brien?" "Of course not, De Lacy. But I have missed him of late." "He is a fortunate fellow." "I am fond of young society. He came often, and I was grateful to him. Now he comes no more, and though I have written to him I have had no answer." "Young men, I have heard, are cavalier nowadays." "They may be, but I don't think the lad is. Do you know anything of him, De Lacy?" "Do you think I carry him in my pocket, madam?" "Is he at Angry?" "If he were, would he not have flown at your call?" "I feared he might be ill. He is not yet recovered of his hurts when he fell in the spring. I feared he might be at Angry needing a woman's care." "Your heart is too tender. If he had needed nursing he could have found it where it was supplied to him so generously before. He would naturally turn to my neighbours at Brandon." "They were very good to him, De Lacy. It was true Christianity of them to take him in. It ought to wipe off old scores in your mind." His face went livid. "A new way to pay old debts," he sneered; "but your sex is ever romantic, my lady." "I am glad the boy is so little like you." "Little enough as far as that goes, as little as his father was before him. But to what am I indebted for this interest in my flesh and blood?" "To himself, De Lacy, be sure, and not to you. Partly, too, because he is dear to someone who is dear to me." "Ah! an affair of the heart. I did not credit him with being a gallant. But I daresay he had a score of pretty affairs I knew nothing of. The county is famed for its rustic beauties, and young men will be young men." The fan trembled violently in my lady's hand. "You insult your grandson, sir, and you insult my adopted daughter, to whom he is betrothed." "Your ladyship's adopted daughter?" "Miss Esther Brandon." I leant forward with my heart in my mouth. Sir Rupert had half sprung from his chair, and for a second his attitude was so menacing that I was in the act to rush to the bell-rope. Then he resumed his seat and looked at my lady with narrowed eyes. Something in the look told me that he was answering a defiance in hers. Still her feather fan waved airily up and down.