Everybody seemed pleased and interested.  Everybody, that is to say, except Lady Caroline and Lord Belpher.  Percy was feeling that he had been tricked.  He cursed the imbecility of Keggs in suggesting that this man should be invited to dinner.  Everything had gone wrong.  George was an undoubted success.  The majority of the company were solid for him.  As far as exposing his unworthiness in the eyes of Maud was concerned, the dinner had been a ghastly failure.  Much better to have left him to lurk in his infernal cottage.  Lord Belpher drained his glass moodily.  He was seriously upset.

But his discomfort at that moment was as nothing to the agony which rent his tortured soul a moment later.  Lord Marshmoreton, who had been listening with growing excitement to the chorus of approval, rose from his seat.  He cleared his throat.  It was plain that Lord Marshmoreton had something on his mind.

“Er. . . .” he said.

The clatter of conversation ceased once more—­stunned, as it always is at dinner parties when one of the gathering is seen to have assumed an upright position.  Lord Marshmoreton cleared his throat again.  His tanned face had taken on a deeper hue, and there was a look in his eyes which seemed to suggest that he was defying something or somebody.  It was the look which Ajax had in his eyes when he defied the lightning, the look which nervous husbands have when they announce their intention of going round the corner to bowl a few games with the boys.  One could not say definitely that Lord Marshmoreton looked pop-eyed.  On the other hand, one could not assert truthfully that he did not.  At any rate, he was manifestly embarrassed.  He had made up his mind to a certain course of action on the spur of the moment, taking advantage, as others have done, of the trend of popular enthusiasm:  and his state of mind was nervous but resolute, like that of a soldier going over the top.  He cleared his throat for the third time, took one swift glance at his sister Caroline, then gazed glassily into the emptiness above her head.

“Take this opportunity,” he said rapidly, clutching at the table-cloth for support, “take this opportunity of announcing the engagement of my daughter Maud to Mr. Bevan.  And,” he concluded with a rush, pouring back into his chair, “I should like you all to drink their health!”

There was a silence that hurt.  It was broken by two sounds, occurring simultaneously in different parts of the room.  One was a gasp from Lady Caroline.  The other was a crash of glass.

For the first time in a long unblemished career Keggs the butler had dropped a tray.

CHAPTER 24.

Out on the terrace the night was very still.  From a steel-blue sky the stars looked down as calmly as they had looked on the night of the ball, when George had waited by the shrubbery listening to the wailing of the music and thinking long thoughts.  From the dark meadows by the brook came the cry of a corncrake, its harsh note softened by distance.