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"Ah, that's because you don't trust me In other words, you don't know s in life: to be really an excellent sort, and to be quite unable to oes My worthy brother-in-law finds you andhands in a shed"

"We were not," said Vernon "I was telling her fortune--"

"It'swhat he is--to the pure all things are i conclusions, hits you with a stick--By the way, you behaved unco a little It is pleasant to be appreciated

"Yes, really very decently, indeed I daresay it wouldn't have hurt a fly, but if you'd been the sort of man he thinks you are--However that's neither here nor there He hits you with a stick, locks the child into her rooht I didn't hear it Locks her in her rooe to Sevenoaks to do it too, to avoid scandal I happen to be at my sister's, on my way from Cairo to Norway, so I undertake to run down He ht houard Betty But I prefer to deal with principals"

"You mean--"

"I mean that I knoell as you do that whatever has happened has been your doing and not that dear little idiot's Now, are you going to tell me about it?"

He had rehearsed already a fore But now that he rose, shrugged his shoulders and spoke, it was in words that had not been rehearsed

"Look here, Miss Desht I haven't any intentions--certainly not dishonourable ones But I was frightfully bored in the country, and your niece is bored, too--more bored than I am No one ever understands or pities the boredo," he added pensively

"Well?"

"Well, that's all there is to it I liked? Do youthe child's hand and putting her in a silly flutter?"

"I deny the flutter," he said, "but--Well, yes, of course I enjoyed it You wouldn't believe me if I said I didn't"