"Rose," began Susannah feebly; but the bare truth was so obviously abroad among them, the facts lay so clearly before them, that all attempts to soften or excuse were futile. She could not get the foolish words across her lips. My lord dropped the rich cloak he carried on to a chair. "I did not go to the Trefusis ball," he said, addressing his brother, "but to my lady's house, and there I learnt enough." "Of what you already suspected?" asked Marius, in a dreary way. "I warned you," said my lord. He smiled, and the eyes he kept on his brother's face were black in their intensity. "Well, we are all worthless knaves and fools, but I have done with this." "Take my lady home," broke in Susannah. "Not yet," said Rose Lyndwood. He drew his rapier with a soft, bright sound, and laughed in Marius's face. "Ah, that!" cried the younger man; and his eyes began to shine. "Do you force bloodshed on me, my lord?" The Earl struck him on the breast with the flat of his sword. "Do you want me to strike you across the face, you poor weak hypocrite?" he cried. "Cannot you answer for what you have done?" Marius put his hand to his hilt. The Countess gave a sobbing laugh, and kept her eyes on them, gloating over my lord's fury. She came forward. "My lord," she said, "I am not here by chance. I love your brother, even to the same measure that I hate you." He thrust her away from him, for in her passion she had stepped so close that her distorted face almost touched his shoulder, and Marius snatched his weapon from the scabbard. Miss Chressham stepped between the sword-points. "Marius," she whispered, "do not fight." Her fingers touched his sleeve for a second, and she looked into his eyes. "Stand back, madam!" cried my lord fiercely, but Marius answered her gaze. "Have pity!" she murmured, and she glanced past him at the Earl. "Oh!" muttered Marius. His rapier slipped from his fingers and rattled on the polished boards; he staggered back against the mantelshelf, staring at Susannah. "Do not fight!" she stammered, and laid her finger on her white lips. That was all, but Marius understood. "Take up your sword!" commanded my lord. He obeyed, picked up the weapon, and returned it to the sheath. "You may do what you will, my lord," he said, in a changed voice, "but you and I cannot adjust anything in this way." "I am not here to discuss expediency," returned the Earl, "but to cross swords with you. It has come to that. We cannot both live with honour." Marius looked from one woman to another--the Countess urging him on with fiery eyes and passion in her very breath, Miss Chressham, still and cold, forbidding. One hated the man who stood opposed to him; the other--what of that other? And he was bound to obey her because he held her very dear. "I do not fight, my lord," he said. He folded his arms and moved away.