Lord Maxwell waited a moment, then, bending over the fire, shrugged his shoulders in mock despair.

“It is evident you are out of love with me, Aldous.  Why, I don’t know yet whether she is dark or fair!”

The conversation jarred on both sides.  Aldous made an effort.

“She is very dark,” he said; “like her mother in many ways, only quite different in colour.  To me she seems the most beautiful—­the only beautiful woman I have ever seen.  I should think she was very clever in some ways—­and very unformed—­childish almost—­in others.  The Hardens say she has done everything she could—­of course it isn’t much—­for that miserable village in the time she has been there.  Oh! by the way, she is a Socialist.  She thinks that all we landowners should be done away with.”

Aldous looked round at his grandfather, so soon probably to be one of the lights of a Tory Cabinet, and laughed.  So, to his relief, did Lord Maxwell.

“Well, don’t let her fall into young Wharton’s clutches, Aldous, or he will be setting her to canvas.  So, she is beautiful and she is clever—­and good, my boy?  If she comes here, she will have to fill your mother’s and your grandmother’s place.”

Aldous tried to reply once or twice, but failed.

“If I did not feel that she were everything in herself to be loved and respected”—­he said at last with some formality—­“I should not long, as I do, to bring you and her together.”

Silence fell again.  But instinctively Aldous felt that his grandfather’s mood had grown gentler—­his own task easier.  He seized on the moment at once.

“In the whole business,” he said, half smiling, “there is only one thing clear, grandfather, and that is, that, if you will, you can do me a great service with Miss Boyce.”

Lord Maxwell turned quickly and was all sharp attention, the keen commanding eyes under their fine brows absorbing, as it were, expression and life from the rest of the blanched and wrinkled face.

“You could, if you would, make matters easy for her and her mother in the county,” said Aldous, anxious to carry it off lightly.  “You could, if you would, without committing yourself to any personal contact with Boyce himself, make it possible for me to bring her here, so that you and my aunt might see her and judge.”

The old man’s expression darkened.

“What, take back that note, Aldous!  I never wrote anything with greater satisfaction in my life!”

“Well,—­more or less,” said Aldous, quietly.  “A very little would do it.  A man in Richard Boyce’s position will naturally not claim very much—­will take what he can get.”

“And you mean besides,” said his grandfather, interrupting him, “that I must send your aunt to call?”

“It will hardly be possible to ask Miss Boyce here unless she does!” said Aldous.

“And you reckon that I am not likely to go to Mellor, even to see her?  And you want me to say a word to other people—­to the Winterbournes and the Levens, for instance?”