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"Leaving the child?" I said interrogatively

"Yes LeavingHe shirked the problem He was born that way He

had no idea what to do with her or for thathimself He bolted back to his suite of rooht have been left in the

Priory to the end of tioverness threatened to

send in her resignation She didn't care for the child a bit, and the

lonely, gloo to put up

with such a life and, having just come out of some ducal family, she

bullied de Barral in a very lofty fashion To pacify her he took a

splendidly furnished house in the hton for

them, and now and then ran down for a week-end, with a trunk full of

exquisite sweets and with his hat full of overness spent it

for him in extra ducal style She was nearly forty and harboured a

secret taste for patronizing young men of sorts--of a certain sort But

of that Mrs Fyne of course had no personal knowledge then; she told me

however that even in the Priory days she had suspected her of being an

artificial, heartless, vulgar-minded woman with the lowest possible

ideals But de Barral did not know it He literally did not know

anything"

"But tell me, Marlow," I interrupted, "how do you account for this

opinion? He must have been a personality in a sense--in soreatest material havoc of a decade at least,

in a co in you"

Marlow shook his head