Sir Marmaduke seated himself on a sofa, and his friend sat close beside him.  The room was quite deserted.  It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and the club was full of men.  There were men in the morning-room, and men in the drawing-room, and men in the card-room, and men in the billiard-room; but no better choice of a chamber for a conference intended to be silent and secret could have been made in all London than that which had induced Sir Marmaduke to take his friend into the library of ‘The Acrobats.’  And yet a great deal of money had been spent in providing this library for ‘The Acrobats.’  Sir Marmaduke sat for awhile silent, and had he sat silent for an hour, Colonel Osborne would not have interrupted him.  Then, at last, he began, with a voice that was intended to be serious, but which struck upon the ear of his companion as being affected and unlike the owner of it.  ’This is a very sad thing about my poor girl,’ said Sir Marmaduke.

‘Indeed it is.  There is only one thing to be said about it, Rowley.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘The man must be mad.’

’He is not so mad as to give us any relief by his madness, poor as such comfort would be.  He has got Emily’s child away from her, and I think it will about kill her.  And what is to become of her?  As to taking her back to the islands without her child, it is out of the question.  I never knew anything so cruel in my life.’

‘And so absurd, you know.’

’Ah that’s just the question.  If anybody had asked me, I should have said that you were the man of all men whom I could have best trusted.’

‘Do you doubt it now?’

‘I don’t know what to think.’

‘Do you mean to say that you suspect me and your daughter, too?’

’No, by heavens!  Poor dear.  If I suspected her, there would be an end of all things with me.  I could never get over that.  No I don’t suspect her!’ Sir Marmaduke had now dropped his affected tone, and was speaking with natural energy.

‘But you do me?’

’No; if I did, I don’t suppose I should be sitting with you here; but they tell me—­’

‘They tell you what?’

’They tell me that that you did not behave wisely about it.  Why could you not let her alone when you found out how matters were going?’

‘Who has been telling you this, Rowley?’

Sir Marmaduke considered for awhile, and then, remembering that Colonel Osborne could hardly quarrel with a clergyman, told him the truth.  ’Outhouse says that you have done her an irretrievable injury by going down to Devonshire to her, and by writing to her.’

‘Outhouse is an ass.’

‘That is easily said, but why did you go?’

’And why should I not go?  What the deuce!  Because a man like that chooses to take vagaries into his head I am not to see my own godchild!’ Sir Marmaduke tried to remember whether the Colonel was in fact the godfather of his eldest daughter, but he found that his mind was quite a blank about his children’s godfathers and godmothers.  ’And as for the letters, I wish you could see them.  The only letters which had in them a word of importance were those about your coming home.  I was anxious to get that arranged, not only for your sake, but because she was so eager about it.’