“Humph!” said the Professor, unconvinced.  “He could easily employ a third party.”

Random rose, looking and feeling annoyed.

“I assure you that Don Pedro is a gentleman and a man of honor.  He would not stoop to—­”

“There! there!” Braddock waved his hands.  “Sit down:  sit down.”

“You shouldn’t say such things, Professor.”

“I say what I desire to say,” retorted the old gentleman tartly; “but we can dismiss the subject for the time being.”

“I am only too glad to do so,” said Random, who was ruffled out of his usual calm by the veiled accusation which Braddock had brought against his foreign friend, “and to get to a more agreeable subject, tell me how Miss Kendal is keeping.”

“She is ill, very ill,” said the Professor solemnly.

“Ill?  Why, Hope, whom I met the other day, said that she was feeling very well and very happy.”

“So Hope thinks, because he has forced her into an engagement.”

Random started to his feet.

“Forced her?  Nonsense!”

“It isn’t nonsense, and don’t dare to speak like that to me, sir.  I repeat that Lucy—­poor child—­is breaking her heart for you.”

The young man stared and then broke into a hearty laugh.

“Pardon me, sir, but that is impossible.”

“It isn’t, confound you!” said Braddock, who did not like being laughed at.  “I know women.”

“You don’t know your daughter.”

“Step-daughter, you mean.”

“Ah, perhaps the more distant relationship accounts for your ignorance of her character,” said Random dryly.  “You are quite wrong.  I was in love with Miss Kendal, and asked her to be my wife before I went on leave.  She refused me, saying that she loved Hope, and because of her refusal I took my broken heart to Monte Carlo, where I lost much more money than I had any right to lose.”

“Your broken heart seems to have mended quickly,” said Braddock, who was trying to suppress his wrath at this instance of Lucy’s duplicity, for so he considered it.

“Oh, pooh, it’s only my way of speaking,” laughed the young man.  “If my heart had been really broken I should not have mentioned the fact.”

“Then you did not love Lucy, and you dared to play fast and loose with her affections,” raged Braddock, stamping.

“You are quite wrong,” said Sir Frank sharply; “I did love Miss Kendal, or I should certainly not have asked her to be my wife.  But when she told me that she loved another man, I stood aside as any fellow would.”

“You should have insisted on—­”

“On nothing, sir.  I am not the man to force a woman to give me a heart which belongs to another person.  I am very glad that Miss Kendal is engaged to Hope, as he is a capital fellow, and will make her a better husband than I ever could have made her.  Besides,” Random shrugged his shoulders, “one nail drives another out.”