"It would be no great honour to Miss Boyle," he said gravely, "to make her my second wife. Believe me, I respect and admire that lady too much to ever act with her the comedy my marriage must be." Susannah clenched her hand impatiently on the mantelshelf. "Oh, you talk, talk!" she cried, "and meanwhile Selina waits; do you suppose these sophistries occur to her, or if they do that they can comfort her in face of the fact that you do not write, you do not come, and she hears your name coupled with that of other women?" "Still you speak under a misconception," said my lord. "I could never marry for love." "You would marry again for money?" she flashed. "I have confessed," he answered; "your sincerity has forced it from me. I do what comes naturally to me to do, that which everyone does--why not?" "In other words you drift!" cried Miss Chressham, "as all the Lyndwoods have drifted, to destruction; you find nothing good but idleness and paltry pleasure." "I have some conscience left," interrupted the Earl, "and in the matter of Miss Boyle." "This talk is but to cloak your own convenience," replied Susannah. "What are you going to do?" "The obvious thing," said my lord. Miss Chressham flushed. "Serena Trefusis has money; they are ambitious people; do you mean that?" Rose Lyndwood laughed. "You are a sweet moralist, my dear, and, by Gad! I don't deserve your interest." She broke in, pushing back the heavy fair hair from her face. "I am not talking of myself," she bit her lip in agitation, "but of Selina Boyle. I think you are going to behave dishonourably, Rose." The Earl was silent. The glow of the fire, showing more strongly in the darkening room, struck vividly on his red dress, and cast a warm colour over his half-averted face. "She hath been very faithful to you," said Susannah in a low voice. "Even had you not asked it of her she would never have married, for your sake, and she is a noble nature. Ah, you should be proud; there are not many such as she." Still my lord did not speak, but his beautiful mouth trembled a little. "And she thinks you care," continued Miss Chressham. "And if you do not, what has she for her devotion? She was the belle of two years ago. Sir Francis married the belle of this--all the town knew that he and you met because of her--all the town read that paragraph in the _Gazette_, and none of this is anything to her, if you care; if not--" she moved from the mantelshelf, and sudden passion touched her voice, "it is hard for women who wait." The Earl raised his head. "She does not know me," he said softly. "What can I do?" "She must never know you," returned Susannah quickly. "What am I to do?" repeated the Earl. "Go to Bristol," said Miss Chressham. "See her, speak to her--by Heaven, you cannot find it difficult to love her, or to feign love to any woman; you do not need me to tell you what to do. I have told you she is waiting, that is enough." My lord slightly smiled.