As soon as she was gone Bobbie stopped whistling.  If she was really going to make a quarrel of it, it would certainly be a great bore—­a hideous bore.  His conscience pricked him for the mean and unmanly dependence which had given the capricious and masterful little woman so much to say in his affairs.  He must really find fresh work, pay his debts, those to Lady Niton first and foremost, and marry the girl who would make a decent fellow of him.  But his heart smote him about his queer old Fairy Blackstick.  No surrender!—­but he would like to make peace.

* * * * *

It was past eight o’clock when the four-in-hand on which the new member had been touring the constituency drove up to the Tallyn door.  Forbes hurried to the steps to greet the party.

“Hullo, Oliver!  A thousand congratulations, old fellow!  Never mind the figures.  A win’s a win!  But I thought you would have been dining and junketing in Dunscombe to-night.  How on earth did you get them to let you off?”

Oliver’s tired countenance smiled perfunctorily as he swung himself down from the coach.  He allowed his hand to be shaken; his lips moved, but only a husky whisper emerged.

“Lost his voice,” Roland Lankester explained.  “And so done that we begged him off from the Dunscombe dinner.  He’s only fit for bed.”

And with a wave of the hand to the company, Marsham, weary and worn, mounted the steps, and, passing rapidly through the hall, went up-stairs.  Alicia Drake and Lankester followed, pausing in the hall to talk with Bobbie.

Alicia too looked tired out.  She was dressed in a marvellous gown of white chiffon, adorned with a large rosette of Marsham’s colors—­red-and-yellow—­and wore a hat entirely composed of red and yellow roses.  The colors were not becoming to her, and she had no air of happy triumph.  Rather, both in her and in Marsham there were strong signs of suppressed chagrin and indignation.

“Well, that’s over!” said Miss Drake, throwing down her gloves on the billiard-table with a fierce gesture; “and I’m sure neither Oliver nor I would go through it again for a million of money.  How revolting the lower classes are!”

Lankester looked at her curiously.

“You’ve worked awfully hard,” he said.  “I hope you’re going to have a good rest.”

“I wouldn’t bother about rest if I could pay out some of the people here,” said Alicia, passionately.  “I should like to see a few score of them hanged in chains, pour encourager les autres.”

So saying, she gathered up her gloves and parasol, and swept up-stairs declaring that she was too dog-tired to talk.

Bobbie Forbes and Lankester looked at each other.