He shook his head. “Oh yes, you will,” she said, going close to him, and speaking in a child's voice of coaxing. “Agnes, you will join with me in trying to show this man in what direction his duty lies.” “Ah, in what direction his duty lies!” said Agnes gently. “What woman can show a man where lies his duty if his inclination points in another direction? But I am forgetting mine. Luncheon!” She pointed to the door of the dining-room, at which the butler was standing with an aggrieved expression upon his face: luncheon had been waiting for some time. “Duty!” said Agnes, when Clare and Mr. Westwood had passed through. “Duty!” She gave a little laugh. CHAPTER XIX |Duty! That constituted the foundation of the plea of Clare for the delivery of his lecture before the Royal Geographical Society. Her eyes sparkled as she talked at lunch, urging Claude Westwood to abandon his resolution to keep a secret the story of his adventures, of his discoveries. “My dear Agnes,” she cried at last, “will you not join with me in telling him all that is his duty?” Agnes shook her head. “All? Did you say 'all'?” she said. “All his duty? Why, my dear, such a task would be akin to Mr. Westwood's description of his travels. The language does not contain sufficient words to tell a man all that is his duty. But so far as the lecture before the Geographical Society is concerned I don't think that he need say very much. Surely they are entitled at least to a paper in exchange for their gold medal. Anything less would be shabby.” “That should settle the question,” said Clare, looking with a triumphant smile at Claude. “I suppose--yes, I am sure that it should,” said he. “Only--well, I hardly know where to begin in giving an account of some of the things I saw during my years of captivity. You have heard of the devil-worship of some parts of Central Africa; but all that you have heard has been a faint, a far-off rumour of what that worship means. I have seen--oh, I tell you there are mysteries--magic--in the heart of that awful Continent that cannot be spoken of.” “But there is much that you can talk about--there's the country, the climate, the products,” said Clare. “Don't you remember the hints that Mr. Paddleford used to give you aboard the _Andalusian?_ Mr. Paddleford was a--a--gentleman--I suppose he would be called a gentleman in England.” “Though he was not so called aboard the steamer?” said Agnes. “Exactly. He was fond of opening up new countries.” “Through the medium of the Limited Liability Companies Act--occasionally going a little further than the Act was ever meant to go,” said Claude.