“Gently, Marian, gently.  What am I to believe about this?”

“What I have told you,” said Douglas, “I confirm on my honor, which you can weigh against the pretences of a twice perjured woman.”

“Sholto!”

“I have to speak plainly on my own behalf, Mr. Lind.  I regret that you were not in a position this morning to warn me of your daughter’s notable secret.”

“If it is a secret, and you are a gentleman, you will hold your tongue,” interposed Elinor, sharply.

“Papa,” said Marian:  “I became engaged yesterday to Mr. Conolly.  I told Mr. Douglas this in order to save him from making me a proposal.  That is the reason he has forgotten himself.  I had not intended to tell you so suddenly; but this misunderstanding has forced me to.”

“Engaged to Mr. Conolly!” cried Mr. Lind.  “I begin to fear that——­Enga——­” He took breath, and continued, to Marian:  “I forbid you to entertain any such engagement.  Sholto:  there is evidently nothing to be gained by discussing this matter in hot blood.  It is some girlish absurdity—­some—­some—­some—­”

“I apologize for having doubted the truth of the excuse,” said Douglas; “but I see that I have failed to gauge Miss Lind’s peculiar taste.  I beg you to understand, Mr. Lind, that my pretensions are at an end.  I do not aspire to the position of Mr. Conolly’s rival.”

“You are already in the position of Mr. Conolly’s unsuccessful rival; and you fill it with a very bad grace,” said Elinor.

“Pray be silent, Elinor,” said Mr. Lind.  “This matter does not concern you.  Marian:  go to your room for the present.  I shall speak to you afterwards.”

Marian flushed, and repressed a sob.  “I wish I were under his protection now,” she said, looking reproachfully at Douglas as she crossed the room.

“What can you expect from a father but hostility?” said Elinor, bitterly.  “You are a coward, like all your sex,” she added, turning to Douglas.  Then she suddenly opened the door, and passed out through it with Marian, whilst the housemaids fled upstairs, the footman shrank into a corner of the landing, and the page hastily dragged the cook down to the kitchen.

The two men, left together in the drawing-room, were for some moments quite at a loss.  Then Mr. Lind, after a preliminary cough or two, said:  “Sholto:  I cannot describe to you how shocked I am by what I have just heard.  I am deeply disappointed in Marian.  I trusted her implicitly; but of course I now see that I have been wrong in allowing her so much liberty.  Evidently a great deal has been going on of which I had not any suspicion.”

Douglas said nothing.  His resentment was unabated; but his rage, naturally peevish and thin in quality, was subsiding, though it surged back on him at intervals.  But now that he no longer desired to speak passionately, he would not trust himself to speak at all.  Suddenly Mr. Lind broke out with a fury that astonished him, preoccupied as he was.