"Glenlivat," answered Lord Mallow, "and plenty of it. I'm in the humour in which a man must either drink inordinately or cut his throat." "Were the birds unapproachable?" asked Captain Winstanley, laughing; "or were the dogs troublesome?" "Birds and dogs were perfect; but---- Well, I suppose I'd better make a clean breast of it. I've had a capital time here---- Oh, here comes the whisky. Hold your hand, old fellow!" cried Lord Mallow, as his host poured the Glenlivat somewhat recklessly into a soda-water tumbler. "You mustn't take me too literally. Just moisten the bottom of the glass with whisky before you put in the soda. That's as much as I care about." "All right. You were saying----" "That my visit here has been simply delightful, and that I must go to London by an early train to-morrow." "Paradoxical!" remarked the Captain. "That sounds like your well-bred servant, who tells you that he has nothing to say against the situation, but he wishes to leave you at the end of his month. What's the matter, dear boy? Do you find our Forest hermitage too dull?" "I should ask nothing kinder from Fate than to be allowed to spend my days in your Forest. Yes, I would say good-bye to the green hills and vales of County Cork, and become that detestable being, an absentee, if--if--Fortune smiled on me. But she doesn't, you see, and I must go. Perhaps you may have perceived, Winstanley--perhaps you may not have been altogether averse from the idea--in a word, I have fallen over head and ears in love with your bewitching stepdaughter." "My dear fellow, I'm delighted. It is the thing I would have wished, had I been bold enough to wish for anything so good. And of course Violet is charmed. You are the very man for her." "Am I? So I thought myself till this morning. Unfortunately the young lady is of a different opinion. She has refused me." "Refused you! Pshaw, they all begin that way. It's one of the small diplomacies of the sex. They think they enhance their value by an assumed reluctance. Nonsense, man, try again. She can't help liking you." "I would try again, every day for a twelvemonth, if there were a scintilla of hope. My life should be a series of offers. But the thing is decided. I know from her manner, from her face, that I have no chance. I have been in the habit of thinking myself rather a nice kind of fellow, and the women have encouraged the idea. But I don't answer here, Winstanley. Miss Tempest will have nothing to say to me." "She's a fool," said Captain Winstanley, with his teeth set, and that dark look of his which meant harm to somebody. "I'll talk to her."