“I may say, a very delicate mission,” said the parson; “and one I would not have undertaken had I not known your lordship’s character for candour and honesty.”

Lord Cashel again bowed and rubbed his hands.

“I am, my lord, a friend of Lord Ballindine; and as such I have taken the liberty of calling on your lordship.”

“A friend of Lord Ballindine?” said the earl, arching his eyebrows, and assuming a look of great surprise.

“A very old friend, my lord; the clergyman of his parish, and for many years an intimate friend of his father.  I have known Lord Ballindine since he was a child.”

“Lord Ballindine is lucky in having such a friend:  few young men now, I am sorry to say, care much for their father’s friends.  Is there anything, Mr Armstrong, in which I can assist either you or his lordship?”

“My lord,” said the parson, “I need not tell you that before I took the perhaps unwarrantable liberty of troubling you, I was made acquainted with Lord Ballindine’s engagement with your ward, and with the manner in which that engagement was broken off.”

“And your object is, Mr Armstrong—?”

“My object is to remove, if possible, the unfortunate misunderstanding between your lordship and my friend.”

“Misunderstanding, Mr Armstrong?—­There was no misunderstanding between us.  I really think we perfectly understood each other.  Lord Ballindine was engaged to my ward; his engagement, however, being contingent on his adoption of a certain line of conduct.  This line of conduct his lordship did not adopt; perhaps, he used a wise discretion; however, I thought not.  I thought the mode of life which he pursued—­”

“But—­”

“Pardon me a moment, Mr Armstrong, and I shall have said all which appears to me to be necessary on the occasion; perhaps more than is necessary; more probably than I should have allowed myself to say, had not Lord Ballindine sent as his ambassador the clergyman of his parish and the friend of his father,” and Lord Cashel again bowed and rubbed his hands.  “I thought, Mr Armstrong, that your young friend appeared wedded to a style of life quite incompatible with his income—­with his own income as a single man, and the income which he would have possessed had he married my ward.  I thought that their marriage would only lead to poverty and distress, and I felt that I was only doing my duty to my ward in expressing this opinion to her.  I found that she was herself of the same opinion; that she feared a union with Lord Ballindine would not ensure happiness either to him or to herself.  His habits were too evidently those of extravagance, and hers had not been such as to render a life of privation anything but a life of misery.”

“I had thought—­”