"Which is exactly the reason why a friend, speaking from the eminence which a certain station confers, might be able to place matters on a better and more profitable footing."

"Not with _my_ consent, sir, depend upon it," said Tony, fiercely.

"My dear Tony, there is a vulgar adage about the impolicy of quarrelling with one's bread-and-b.u.t.ter; but how far more reprehensible would it be to quarrel with the face of the man who cuts it?"

It is just possible that Sir Arthur was as much mystified by his own ill.u.s.tration as was Tony, for each continued for some minutes to look at the other in a state of hopeless bewilderment. The thought of one mystery, however, recalled another, and Tony remembered his mother's note.

"By the way, sir, I have a letter here for you from my mother," said he, producing it.

Sir Arthur put on his spectacles leisurely, and began to peruse it. It seemed very brief, for in an instant he had returned it to his pocket.

"I conclude you know nothing of the contents of this?" said he, quietly.

"Nothing whatever."

"It is of no consequence. You may simply tell Mrs. Butler from me that I will call on her by an early day; and now, won't you come and have a cup of tea? Lady Lyle will expect to see you in the drawing-room."

Tony would have refused, if he knew how; even in his old days he had been less on terms of intimacy with Lady Lyle than any others of the family, and she had at times a sort of dignified stateliness in her manner that checked him greatly.

"Here 's Tony Butler come to take a cup of tea with you, and say good-bye," said Sir Arthur, as he led him into the drawing-room.

"Oh, indeed! I am too happy to see him," said she, laying down her book; while, with a very chilly smile, she added, "and where is Mr. Butler bound for this time?" And simple as the words were, she contrived to impart to them a meaning as though she had said, "What new scheme or project has he now? What wild-goose chase is he at present engaged in?"

Sir Arthur came quickly to the rescue, as he said, "He's going to take up an appointment under the Crown; and, like a good and prudent lad, to earn his bread, and do something towards his mother's comfort."

"I think you never take sugar," said she, smiling faintly; "and for a while you made a convert of Alice."

Was there ever a more common-place remark? and yet it sent the blood to poor Tony's face and temples, and overwhelmed him with confusion. "You know that the girls are both away?"

"It's a capital thing they 've given him," said Sir Arthur, trying to extract from his wife even the semblance of an interest in the young fellow's career.

"What is it?" asked she.

"How do they call you? Are you a Queen's messenger, or a Queen's courier, or a Foreign Office messenger?"

"I'm not quite sure. I believe we are messengers, but whose I don't remember."

"They have the charge of all the despatches to the various emba.s.sies and legations in every part of the world," said Sir Arthur, pompously.

"How addling it must be,--how confusing!"

"Why so? You don't imagine that they have to retain them, and report them orally, do you?"

"Well, I 'm afraid I did," said she, with a little simper that seemed to say, What did it signify either way?

"They'd have made a most unlucky selection in my case," said Tony, laughing, "if such had been the duty."

"Do you think you shall like it?"

"I suppose I shall. There is so very little I 'm really fit for, that I look on this appointment as a piece of rare luck."

"I fancy I 'd rather have gone into the army,--a cavalry regiment, for instance."

"The most wasteful and extravagant career a young fellow could select,"

said Sir Arthur, smarting under some recent and not over-pleasant experiences.

"The uniform is so becoming too," said she, languidly.

"It is far and away beyond any pretension of my humble fortune, Madam,"

said Tony, proudly, for there was an impertinent carelessness in her manner that stung him to the quick.

"Ah, yes," sighed she; "and the army, too, is not the profession for one who wants to marry."

Tony again felt his cheek on fire, but he did not utter a word as she went on, "And report says something like this of you, Mr. Butler."

"What, Tony! how is this? I never heard of it before," cried Sir Arthur.

"Nor I, sir."

"Come, come. It is very indiscreet of me, I know," said Lady Lyle; "but as we are in such a secret committee here at this moment, I fancied I might venture to offer my congratulations."

"Congratulations! on what would be the lad's ruin! Why, it would be downright insanity. I trust there is not a word of truth in it."

"I repeat, sir, that I hear it all for the first time."

"I conclude, then, I must have been misinformed."

"Might I be bold enough to ask from what quarter the rumor reached you, or with whom they mated me?"

"Oh, as to your choice, I hear she is a very nice girl indeed, admirably brought up and well educated,--everything but rich; but of course that fact was well known to you. Men in her father's position are seldom affluent."

"And who could possibly have taken the trouble to weave all this romance about me?" said Tony, flushing not the less deeply that he suspected it was Dolly Stewart who was indicated by the description.

"One of the girls, I forget which, told me. Where she learned it, I forget, if I ever knew; but I remember that the story had a sort of completeness about it that looked like truth." Was it accident or intention that made Lady Lyle fix her eyes steadily on Tony as she spoke? As she did so, his color, at first crimson, gave way to an ashy paleness, and he seemed like one about to faint. "After all," said she, "perhaps it was a mere flirtation that people magnified into marriage."

"It was not even that," gasped he out, hoa.r.s.ely. "I am overstaying my time, and my mother will be waiting tea for me," muttered he; and with some scarcely intelligible attempts at begging to be remembered to Alice and Bella, he took his leave, and hurried away.

While Tony, with a heart almost bursting with agony, wended his way towards home, Lady Lyle resumed her novel, and Sir Arthur took up the "Times." After about half an hour's reading he laid down the paper, and said, "I hope there is no truth in that story about young Butler."

"Not a word of it," said she, dryly.

"Not a word of it! but I thought you believed it."

"Nothing of the kind. It was a lesson the young gentleman has long needed, and I was only waiting for a good opportunity to give it."

"I don't understand you. What do you mean by a lesson?"

"I have very long suspected that it was a great piece of imprudence on our part to encourage the intimacy of this young man here, and to give him that position of familiarity which he obtained amongst us; but I trusted implicitly to the immeasurable distance that separated him from our girls, to secure us against danger. That clever man of the world, Mr. Maitland, however, showed me I was wrong. He was not a week here till he saw enough to induce him to give me a warning; and though at first he thought it was Bella's favor he aspired to, he afterwards perceived it was to Alice he directed his attentions."