He sat up to slay a wasp on the window-pane, flicked the corpse in Mordaunt’s direction with airy adroitness, and lay down again.

“Are you in a wax over anything?” he inquired, with a yawn.

Mordaunt turned quietly round.  “Get up!” he said.

Noel laughed up at him engagingly.  “You can’t kick me so easily lying down, can you?  But what do you want to kick me for?  I’m quite harmless.”

“I am not going to kick you,” Mordaunt said.  “It is not my way.”

“All right, then.  Why didn’t you say so before?” Noel sat up and regarded him with interest.  “Well?” he said at the end of an expectant pause.  “Let’s have it, man, and have done!”

“I have nothing to give you,” Mordaunt returned.  “I told you you could go.”

Something in the tone rather than the words caught Noel’s attention.  He bounced suddenly from his lounging attitude to Mordaunt’s side, and thrust an affectionate arm about his shoulders.

“What’s the matter, old chap?  You look as if you had found sixpence and lost half a crown.”

“Perhaps I have,” Mordaunt returned grimly.

He did not repulse the friendly overture; that also was not his way.  But neither did he respond to it.  He stood passive, looking out over the park with unobservant eyes.

“Cheer up, I say,” urged Noel.  “You’re such a rattling good chap, you know.  I’m getting awfully fond of you.”

“Much obliged,” said Mordaunt; but he did not seem highly gratified.  In fact, his thoughts were plainly elsewhere.

Noel, however, would not be satisfied with this.  “What are you grizzling about?” he said.  “Tell a fellow!”

Mordaunt’s eyes came down to him.  “I wish you Wyndhams had a little sense of honour,” he said.

“Oh, is that it?” said Noel.  “Well, we are not top-heavy in that respect, I own.  But, after all, it’s not worth worrying about.  We get on very nicely without it.  And we wouldn’t any of us sell a friend.”

“I’m glad to know you draw the line somewhere,” Mordaunt observed.

“Oh, rather!  I wouldn’t chouse you for the world.  Chris wouldn’t either.  But we’re both shy of you, you know, because you’re so beastly moral.”  He gave his brother-in-law a warm hug to soften the effect of his words.  “You may as well tell me what you wanted to say to me just now,” he remarked.

“I was going to request you to behave like a gentleman,” Mordaunt returned.  “But as you don’t seem to know what that means—­” He paused, looking straight into the Irish eyes that met his with such sublime assurance.  “Do you know what it means, Noel?” he asked.

Noel grinned.  “You can take me in hand and teach me if it isn’t too much trouble.  I suppose you didn’t like me to tell Chris she was lying about that letter.  But she was, you know.  There’s no getting away from that fact, even if she is your wife.”

“I’m not trying to get away from facts,” Mordaunt said.  “But I do object—­strongly—­to discourtesy.  You may be her brother, but that doesn’t entitle you to insult her.  Plainly, I won’t have it from you or anyone.”