“We have,” said Noel bluntly.

“I fear the occasion has slipped my memory,” said Hunt-Goring.

A wiser man would have passed on.  But Noel had not yet attained to years of discretion.  He stood his ground and explained.

“We met at dinner here.  Captain and Miss Ratcliffe were here too—­and my brother.”

“Oh, ah!  I remember now.  Quite an amusing evening, was it not?” Hunt-Goring laughed gently.  “You were rather vexed with me for chaffing her about her engagement.  I have always thought a little chaff was legitimate on such occasions.”

“When it isn’t objectionable,” said Noel gruffly.

Hunt-Goring laughed again.  “Do you know why the engagement was broken off?”

Noel drew himself up sharply.  “That, sir, is neither your affair nor mine.”

Hunt-Goring took out his cigarette-case.  “Well, it was mine in a way,” he observed complacently.  “I pulled the strings, you know.”

“Ah!” It was an exclamation of anger rather than of surprise.  The blood mounted in a great wave to Noel’s forehead.  He looked suddenly dangerous.  “I guessed it was your doing,” he said, in a furious undertone.

Hunt-Goring continued to smile.  “He wasn’t a very suitable parti for her, my dear fellow.  There was a certain episode in his past that wouldn’t bear too close an investigation.  Very possibly you have not been let into that secret.  Your brother was not over-anxious to have it noised abroad.”

Noel’s hands were clenched.  He seemed to be restraining himself from a violent outburst with immense difficulty.

“My brother,” he said with emphasis, “is the gentleman of our family.  He has never yet done anything that couldn’t have been proclaimed from the house-tops.”

Hunt-Goring uttered his sneering laugh.  “What touching loyalty!  My dear fellow, your brother is the biggest blackguard of you all, if you only knew it.”

“You lie!” Violently came the words; they were as the sudden bursting of the storm.  Something electric seemed suddenly to have entered into Noel.  He became as it were galvanized by fury.

But still Hunt-Goring laughed.  “Oh, not on this occasion, I assure you.  I have too little at stake.  I wonder why you imagined the engagement was broken off.  I suppose your brother gave you a reason of sorts.”

Noel’s eyes shone red.  “He gave me to understand that you had had a hand in it.  I guessed it in fact.  I knew what an infernal blackguard you were.”

“Order!  Order!” smiled Hunt-Goring.  “After all, my share in the matter was a very small one.  Most men have a past, you know.  When you have lived a little longer, you will recognize that.  So he didn’t tell you why he had been thrown over?  Left you to make your own inferences, I suppose?  Or perhaps she made the flattering suggestion that she had bestowed her affections upon—­someone more captivating?  I fancy she is wisely determined to secure as good a bargain as possible—­for which one can scarcely blame her.  And a man with so lively a past as your brother’s would scarcely be a safe partner for one who values peace and prosperity.”