"You will answer me differently another day," he said smilingly; "meanwhile, _cara mia_, there are two secrets to keep--yours and mine. If the charming Lady Evelyn will not hear me, I must remember Etta Romney, a young lady of my acquaintance--ah, you know her too; and that is well for her. Let us return to the house. My lord will have much to say to me and I to him." They went up to the Hall together in silence. Evelyn knew how much she was in his power and how idle her veiled threats had been. She could save her father from this man--truly. But at what a price! "Etta Romney would marry him," she said bitterly; "but I--Evelyn--God help me to be true to myself!" CHAPTER XVI A GAME OF GOLF Golf at Moretown is "by favor of the Lord of the Manor" played across a corner of the home park, so remote from Melbourne Hall that you have a vista of that fine old house but rarely from the trees, and nowhere at all if you be an ardent player. Such a description could in all sincerity have been applied to either of our old friends Dr. Philips and the Rev. Harry Fillimore, the vicar of the parish. They played the game as though all their worldly hope depended upon it. The best of friends at common times, difficulty could provoke them to such violent hostilities that they did not speak a word to each other until the after-luncheon glass of port had been slowly sipped. Intimate in their knowledge each of the other, the Vicar knew exactly when to cough that the Doctor's forcible exclamations might not be overheard by the caddies. The Doctor, upon his part, sympathized very cordially with the Vicar when that worthy found himself in a bunker. "Harry, my dear boy, pray remember where you are," he would say, and to give him his due, the Vicar rarely forgot the number of strokes necessary to extract himself from one of these many vales of tears which abounded at Moretown. Other moments, it should be observed, were those of mutual admiration. "If you could only putt as well as you can drive, you might play Vardon," the Vicar would tell the Doctor. To which the reply would be: "My dear Harry, Taylor could not play a better approach than that. You'll be down to scratch if you go on improving in this way."