Lady Lancaster reflected for a moment, with her head on one side, like some brooding bird of evil omen. "Very well," she said. "You shall not say I was impatient with you. Lady Adela will stay with us a month yet. You shall have the whole of that time to make up your mind, and then you must give me your answer. I can not believe that you are fool enough to let it be an unfavorable one." "Thank you," he replied, with a bow. "You need not thank me for nothing," sharply. "Of course I know you will have more sense than to refuse twenty thousand a year, unless," sneering, "you mean to become a suitor for the hand of that West creature." Stung to retaliation, he answered: "Miss West can boast a suitor more eligible than myself in point of that 'filthy lucre' you hold so dear." She started, and gave him a keen glance. "Whom?" "Lieutenant De Vere." "No!" she cried. "Yes," he answered. "Why should you look so surprised? He was our _compagnon du voyage_. He admired Miss West very much, and he confided to me his intention of winning her, if possible, for his wife." "His family will not allow him to throw himself away on that girl," she cried. "He is quite independent of his family, and he will not be slow to avail himself of the advantage." "Happy mortal! You would like to exchange places with him, no doubt?" she sneered. "I could wish, certainly, that I were as fortunate as my friend," he replied. She glared at him a moment, and then asked, curiously: "Is the girl in love with De Vere? Pshaw! what would love have to do with it? I mean, will she accept her wealthy suitor?" "She will if she is worldly wise," slowly. "But I can not tell. I do not know Miss West well enough to decide what she would do in a given case." "Of course she will accept him. She is sharp enough, and such a girl as she is--poor and lowly born--would not be slow to jump at such a chance," said the dowager, coarsely. "If I had known that Lieutenant De Vere was so silly, I should not have invited him here. I would have had nothing to do with him. But he will be here to-night." "He is here now. He went to his dressing-room an hour ago," Lancaster said, coolly. "I think he will express a desire for a private interview with you this evening. It is rather embarrassing to him to have to ask your permission to woo his lady-love in the housekeeper's rooms, yet such is his avowed intention. If I--" he paused and bit his lip to keep back the impatient avowal. "If you--what? Go on, my lord--let me hear what wonderful thought was prefaced by that 'if.'" "Only this--if I were master in my own house instead of a guest, it should be otherwise. My friend should not be insulted." "You would bring that creature into the drawing-room to receive his addresses?" she hissed. "Yes," he replied.