’Oh, mother, don’t preach.  I’ve confessed to you, and it isn’t fair to be so awfully down upon me,’ he retorted irritably.  ’I don’t think you or the governor have had much to complain of as far as my conduct is concerned, and I’m not going to stay here to be bullied and snubbed for making a little slip.  I tell you, you don’t know what other fellows are.  I’ve a good mind to open your eyes for you.’

’I don’t want them opened, thank you; and if that is the spirit in which you are going to the Crescent, you deserve to fail, as you are sure to do.  I am not sure whether I shall not tell your father, after all,’ she said icily.

‘I don’t care if you do,’ he retorted, and banged out in ill-humour, which, however, gradually cooled down as he walked rapidly to the station.

Finding no train for the city due for ten minutes, he threw himself into a hansom, and drove all the way, reaching his aunt’s house before eight o’clock.  Although he ran up the steps at once, he did not immediately ring, but even went back into the street, and took a turn up to the end of the houses, surprised and irritated at his own nervous apprehension.  Glancing up to the house when he again came opposite to it, he saw the three long windows of the drawing-room lighted, and pictured the scene within.  It was a new and unwelcome sensation for him to feel any reluctance in entering a drawing-room where there were three charming girls, and at last, calling himself a fool, he ran up the steps a second time, and gave the bell a furious pull.

‘Is Miss Graham here, Hardy?’ he asked the maid, an old servant of his aunt’s, who opened the door.

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Anybody in the library?’

‘No, sir.  Mr. Fordyce is sleeping on the dining-room sofa.’

’Oh, all right.  Just take my card to Miss Graham, and ask her if she would be so kind as to come down to the library for a few minutes.’

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXVI.

TETE-A-TETE.

‘How extraordinary!’ exclaimed Gladys.  ’Your cousin is in the library, why does he not come up?’

There was something so matter-of-fact in the question, that Mrs. Fordyce and her daughters could not refrain from exchanging glances.

’Well, my dear, I suppose he does not come up because he wishes to have you a little while to himself,’ said Mrs. Fordyce, with a smile, ’and I must say I quite sympathise with him.  Run away down, and don’t stay too long; tell him not to be selfish.’

’But I don’t think I want to go down.  It is so strange, I think, for him not to come up here as usual.  Why should there be any difference made?’ inquired Gladys, as she rose with seeming reluctance to her feet.

‘It is you who are strange, I think,’ said Mina whimsically.  ’You would require a very cool lover, Gladys, you are so cool yourself.’

‘It is a pity one must have a lover,’ said Gladys quite soberly, as she walked out of the room.