It was, however, plainly impossible to confine the secret so strictly as to prevent it coming to the knowledge of Lord Rickmansworth.  Indeed he had a right to know the issue, for he had been a sharer in the design; and accordingly, when he also left Baden and betook himself to his own house to spend what was left of the autumn, he carried locked in his heart the news of the fresh development.  On the whole he observed the injunction of silence urgently laid upon him by Ayre with tolerable faithfulness.  But there are limits to these things, and it never entered Rickmansworth’s head that his sister was included among the persons who were to remain in ignorance till the matter was finally settled.  He met Claudia at the family reunion at Territon Park in the beginning of October, and when she and he and Bob were comfortably seated at dinner together, among the first remarks he made—­indeed, he was brimming over with it—­was: 

“I suppose you’ve heard the news, Clau?”

What with one thing—­packing and unpacking, traveling, perhaps less obvious troubles—­Lady Claudia was in a state which, if it manifested itself in a less attractive person, might be called snappish.

“I never hear any news,” she answered shortly.

“Well, here’s some for you,” replied the Earl, grinning.  “Kate has chucked Eugene over.”

“Nonsense!” But she started and colored, all the same.

“I suppose you were at Baden and saw it all, and I wasn’t!” said Rickmansworth, with ponderous satire.  “So we won’t say any more about it.”

“Well, what do you mean?”

“No; never mind!  It doesn’t matter—­all a mistake.  I’m always making some beastly blunder—­eh, Bob?” and he winked gently at his appreciative brother.

“Yes, you’re an ass, of course!” said Bob, entering into the family humor.

“Good thing I’ve got a sister to keep me straight!” pursued the Earl, who was greatly amused with himself.  “Might have gone about believing it, you know.”

Claudia was annoyed.  Brothers are annoying at times.

“I don’t see any fun in that,” she said.

Lord Rickmansworth drank some beer (beer was the Territon drink), and maintained silence.

The butler came in with his satellite, swept away the beer and the other impedimenta, and put on dessert.  The servants disappeared, but silence still reigned unbroken.

Claudia arose, and went round to her brother’s chair.  He was ostentatiously busy with a large plum.

“Rick, dear, won’t you tell me?”

“Tell you!  Why, it’s all nonsense, you know.”

“Rick, dear!” said Claudia again, with her arm around his neck.

He was going to carry on his jest a little further, when he happened to look at her.

“Why, Clau, you look as if you were almost—­”

“Never mind that,” she said quickly.  “Oh! do tell me.”

“It is quite true.  She’s written breaking it off, and has accepted Haddington.  But it’s a secret, you know, till they’ve heard from Eugene, at all events.  Must hear in a day or two.”