“The moment I saw you I knew that you would do. No man better fitted to play the game than yourself; for you have wit and quickness,” went on this friend and mentor, with a little pressure on his companion's arm. “But--you will have to put your back into it, you know.” “What do you mean?” “Well--I noticed at Farlingford a certain reluctance to begin. It is in the blood, I suppose. There is, you know, in the Bourbon blood a certain strain of--well, let us say of reluctance to begin. Others call it by a different name. One is not a Bourbon for nothing, I suppose. And everything--even if it be a vice--that serves to emphasise identity is to be cultivated. But, as I say, you will have to put your back into it later on. At present there will be less to do. You will have to play close and hold your hand, and follow any lead that is given you by de Gemosac, or by my humble self. You will find that easy enough, I know. For you have all a Frenchman's quickness to understand. And I suppose--to put it plainly as between men of the world--now that you have had time to think it over--you are not afraid, Barebone?” “Oh no!” laughed Barebone. “I am not afraid.” “One is not a Barebone--or a Bourbon--for nothing,” observed Colville, in an aside to himself. “Gad! I wish I could say that I should not be afraid myself under similar circumstances. My heart was in my mouth, I can tell you, in that cabin when de Gemosac blurted it all out. It came suddenly at the end, and--well!--it rather hit one in the wind. And, as I say, one is not a Bourbon for nothing. You come into a heritage, eight hundred years old, of likes and dislikes, of genius and incapacity, of an astounding cleverness, and a preposterous foolishness without compare in the history of dynasties. But that doesn't matter nowadays. This is a progressive age, you know; even the Bourbons cannot hold back the advance of the times.” “I come into a heritage of friends and of enemies,” said Barebone, gaily--“all ready made. That seems to me more important.” “Gad! you are right,” exclaimed Colville. “I said you would do the moment I saw you step ashore at Farlingford. You have gone right to the heart of the question at the first bound. It is your friends and your enemies that will give you trouble.” “More especially my friends,” suggested Loo, with a light laugh. “Right again,” answered Colville, glancing at him sideways beneath the brim of his hat. And there was a little pause before he spoke again.