And then, Lord Keith said, a man could hardly be expected to settle down without marrying.  He wished earnestly to see his brother married, but, unfortunately, charges on his estate would prevent him from doing anything for him; and, in fact, he did not see any possibility of his—­of his marrying, except a person with some means.

“I understand,” said Ermine, looking straight before her, and her colour mounting.

“I was sure that a person of your great good sense would do so,” said Lord Keith.  “I assure you no one can be more sensible than myself of the extreme forbearance, discretion, and regard for my brother’s true welfare that has been shown here.”

Ermine bowed.  He did not know that the vivid carmine that made her look so handsome was not caused by gratification at his praise, but by the struggle to brook it patiently.

“And now, knowing the influence over him that, most deservedly, you must always possess, I am induced to hope that, as his sincere friend, you will exert it in favour of the more prudent counsels.”

“I have no influence over his judgment,” said Ermine, a little proudly.

“I mean,” said Lord Keith, forced to much closer quarters, “you will excuse me for speaking thus openly—­that in the state of the case, with so much depending on his making a satisfactory choice, I feel convinced, with every regret, that you will feel it to be for his true welfare—­as indeed I infer that you have already endeavoured to show him—­to make a new beginning, and to look on the past as past.”

There was something in the insinuating tone of this speech, increased as it was by the modulation of his Scottish voice, that irritated his hearer unspeakably, all the more because it was the very thing she had been doing.

“Colonel Keith must judge for himself,” she said, with a cold manner, but a burning heart.

“I—­I understand,” said Lord Keith, “that you had most honourably, most consistently, made him aware that—­that what once might have been desirable has unhappily become impossible.”

“Well,” said Ermine.

“And thus,” he proceeded, “that the sincere friendship with which you still regard him would prevent any encouragement to continue an attachment, unhappily now hopeless and obstructive to his prospects.”

Ermine’s eyes flashed at the dictation.  “Lord Keith,” she said, “I have never sought your brother’s visits nor striven to prolong them; but if he finds pleasure in them after a life of disappointment and trouble, I cannot refuse nor discourage them.”

“I am aware,” said Lord Keith, rising as if to go, “that I have trespassed long on your time, and made a suggestion only warranted by the generosity with which you have hitherto acted.”

“One may be generous of one’s own, not of other people’s,” said Ermine.

He looked at her puzzled, then said, “Perhaps it will be best to speak categorically, Miss Williams.  Let it be distinctly understood that my brother Colin, in paying his addresses to you, is necessarily without my sanction or future assistance.”