Twice, therefore, had he striven to conquer his feeling, and twice Fate had intervened, so that he now felt inclined to fight no longer. Had he given way to his present desires, he would have left Guy to the tender mercies of Cleopatra, and gone down to stay at Castle Grim from whence he would have been able to go over to Errington Hall daily and pay his court to Alizon. All feelings of honour, however, were not absolutely dead in his breast, so he determined to await the course of events and see if Mrs. Veilsturm would manage to subjugate Guy, in which case he determined to interfere. He knew quite enough about Mrs. Veilsturm, for his opinion to carry considerable weight with that lady, and although it was not a pleasant thing to step between a panther and its prey, yet he made up his mind to do so should occasion arise. But if Fate intervened for the third time, and rendered his trouble useless, Eustace felt in his own heart that further struggling against Destiny would be beyond his strength. At present, however, he had rather over-estimated the situation, as Guy was by no means the abject slave of Mrs. Veilsturm he deemed him to be. Love for Alizon, although but ill-requited, still had possession of Guy's whole being, and formed a safeguard against the dangerous assaults of Cleopatra. Errington was constantly in attendance on her, and she put forth all her arts to enmesh him in her toils, but although three weeks had now passed, she saw that she had not made much headway. Guy liked her for her kindly manner towards him, admired her for her beauty, felt flattered by her preference, but in reality was as heart-whole as when he first saw her, and had his wife lifted her little finger, he would have flown to her side without a moment's hesitation. Cleopatra was much too clever a woman not to see this, and felt rather nettled that any man should dare to withstand her charms. Moreover, being bent on separating Errington from his wife, she had a very powerful reason to do her best in reducing him to a state of bondage; therefore spared neither time nor trouble in attempting to do so. Errington's love for his wife, however, stood him in good stead, and despite the temptations to which he was subjected, he did not succumb in any way. Major Griff was by no means pleased with this new fancy of his friend and partner. As a rule, by dexterous management, he could make her do what he liked, but on some occasions she broke away from leading-strings, and did what she pleased. This present desire to captivate Errington was due, not to a feeling of love, but to the more powerful one of revenge, and Griff, being an astute reader of character, saw that in her present frame of mind he could do nothing with her.