“No, hold hard a bit, Jue,” he said imperatively.  “You may talk till the millennium, but just keep off her, I warn you.”

“Will you hear me out, you silly boy?  Suppose that Miss Rosewarne is everything that you believe her to be.  I’m going to grant that, because I’m going to ask you a question.  You can’t have such an opinion of any girl, and be constantly in her society, and go following her about like this, without falling in love with her.  Now, in that case would you propose to marry her?”

“I marry her!” he said, his face becoming suddenly pale for a moment.  “Jue, you are mad!  I am not fit to marry a girl like that.  You don’t know her.  Why—­”

“Let all that alone, Harry:  when a man is in love with a woman he always thinks he’s good enough for her; and whether he does or not he tries to get her for a wife.  Don’t let us discuss your comparative merits:  one might even put in a word for you.  But suppose you drifted into being in love with her—­and I consider that quite probable—­and suppose you forgot, as I know you would forget, the difference in your social position, how would you like to go and ask her to break her promise to the gentleman to whom she is engaged?”

Master Harry laughed aloud in a somewhat nervous fashion:  “Him?  Look here, Jue:  leave me out of it—­I haven’t the cheek to talk of myself in that connection—­but if there was a decent sort of fellow whom that girl really took a liking to, do you think he would let that elderly and elegant swell out in Jamaica stand in his way?  He would be no such fool, I can tell you.  He would consider the girl first of all.  He would say to himself, ’I mean to make this girl happy; if any one interferes, let him look out!’ Why, Jue, you don’t suppose any man would be frightened by that sort of thing?”

Miss Juliott did not seem quite convinced by this burst of scornful oratory.  She continued quietly, “You forget something, Harry.  Your heroic young man might find it easy to do something wild—­to fight with that gentleman in the West Indies, or murder him, or anything like that, just as you see in a story—­but perhaps Miss Rosewarne might have something to say.”

“I meant if she cared for him,” Trelyon said, looking down.

“Granting that also, do you think it likely your hot-headed gentleman would be able to get a young lady to disgrace herself by breaking her plighted word and deceiving a man who went away trusting in her?  You say she has a very tender conscience—­that she is so anxious to consult every one’s happiness before her own, and all that.  Probably it is true.  I say nothing against her.  But to bring the matter back to yourself—­for I believe you’re hot-headed enough to do anything—­what would you think of her if you or anybody else persuaded her to do such a treacherous thing?”

“She is not capable of treachery,” he said somewhat stiffly.  “If you’ve got no more cheerful things to talk about, you’d better go to bed, Jue.  I shall finish my cigar by myself.”