Lady Ongar, however, soon carried him away from the actual brink of the precipice.  “But how about the dragon,” said she, “or rather about the dragon’s brother, at whom you were bound to go and tilt on my behalf?  Have you tilted, or are you a recreant knight?”

“I have tilted,” said he, “but the he-dragon professes that he will not regard himself as killed.  In other words, he declares that he will see you.”

“That he will see me?” said Lady Ongar, and as she spoke there came an angry spot on each cheek.  “Does he send me that message as a threat?”

“He does not send it as a threat, but I think he partly means it so.”

“He will find, Harry, that I will not see him; and that should he force himself into my presence, I shall know how to punish such an outrage.  If he sent me any message, let me know it.”

“To tell the truth, he was most unwilling to speak to me at all, though he was anxious to be civil to me.  When I had inquired for him some time in vain, he came to me with another man, and asked me to dinner.  So I went, and as there were four of us, of course I could not speak to him then.  He still had the other man, a foreigner—­”

“Colonel Schmoff, perhaps?”

“Yes; Colonel Schmoff.  He kept Colonel Schmoff by him, so as to guard him from being questioned.”

“That is so like him.  Everything he does he does with some design—­with some little plan.  Well, Harry, you might have ignored Colonel Schmoff for what I should have cared.”

“I got the count to come out into another room at last, and then he was very angry—­with me, you know—­and talked of what he would do to men who interfered with him.”

“You will not quarrel with him, Harry?  Promise me that there shall be no nonsense of that sort—­no fighting.”

“Oh, no; we were friends again very soon.  But he bade me tell you that there was something important for him to say and for you to hear, which was no concern of mine, and which required an interview.”

“I do not believe him, Harry.”

“And he said that he had once been very courteous to you—­”

“Yes; once insolent—­and once courteous.  I have forgiven the one for the other.”

“He then went on to say that you made him a poor return for his civility by shutting your door in his face, but that he did not doubt you would think better of it when you had heard his message.  Therefore, he said, he should call again.  That, Lady Ongar, was the whole of it.”

“Shall I tell you what his intention was, Harry?” Again her face became red as she asked this question; but the color which now came to her cheeks was rather that of shame than of anger.

“What was his intention?”

“To make you believe that I am in his power; to make you think that he has been my lover; to lower me in your eyes, so that you might believe all that others have believed—­all that Hugh Clavering has pretended to believe.  That has been his object, Harry, and perhaps you will tell me what success he has had.”