“I am,” she was in the habit of saying, “a great advocate for allowing young people to manage their affairs themselves. One young man, if he be the right one, has more influence with a girl than a thousand old women; and it is just possible that he knows better than they do what is for her happiness. It is the interference that makes mischief.” So she did not interfere. She merely invited Guy Oscard to stay to tea. CHAPTER V. WITH EDGED TOOLS Do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw To the fire i' the blood. “And what do you intend to do with yourself?” asked Lady Cantourne when she had poured out tea. “You surely do not intend to mope in that dismal house in Russell Square?” “No, I shall let it if I can.” “Oh, you will have no difficulty in doing that. People live in Russell Square again now, and try to make one believe that it is a fashionable quarter. Your father stayed on there because the carpets fitted the rooms, and on account of other ancestral conveniences. He did not live there--he knew nothing of his immediate environments. He lived in Phoenicia.” “Then,” continued Guy Oscard, “I shall go abroad.” “Ah! Will you have a second cup? Why will you go abroad?” Guy Oscard paused for a moment. “I know an old hippopotamus in a certain African river who has twice upset me. I want to go back and shoot him.” “Don't go at once; that would be running away from it--not from the hippopotamus--from the inquest. It does not matter being upset in an African river; but you must not be upset in London by--an inquest.” “I did not propose going at once,” replied Guy Oscard, with a peculiar smile which Lady Cantourne thought she understood. “It will take me some time to set my affairs in order--the will, and all that.” Lady Cantourne waited with perfectly suppressed curiosity, and while she was waiting Millicent Chyne came into the room. The girl was dressed with her habitual perfect taste and success, and she came forward with a smile of genuine pleasure, holding out a small hand neatly gloved in Suede. Her ladyship was looking not at Millicent, but at Guy Oscard. Millicent was glad that he had called, and said so. She did not add that during the three months that had elapsed since Jack Meredith's sudden departure she had gradually recognised the approaching ebb of a very full tide of popularity. It was rather dull at times, when Jack's letters arrived at intervals of two and sometimes of three weeks--when her girl friends allowed her to see somewhat plainly that she was no longer to be counted as one of themselves. An engagement sits as it were on a young lady like a weak heart on a schoolboy, setting her apart in work and play, debarring her from participation in that game of life which is ever going forward where young folks do congregate.