" I offered to lay Lady Janet two hun dred pounds to one," Horace proceeded, "That I should find you here, making love to Miss Roseberry behind my back. " Mercy interfered before Julian could reply. " If you cannot speak without insulting one of us," she said, ''permit me to re quest that you will not address yourself to Mr Julian Gray." Horace bowed to her, with a mockery of respect. "Pray don't alarm yourself; 1 am pledged to be scrupulously civil to both of you," he said. " Lady Janet only al lowed me to leave her on condition of my promising to behave with perfect polite ness. What else can Ido 1 I have two privileged persons to deal with — a parson and a woman. The parson's protession protects him, and the woman's sex pro tects her. You have got me at a disad vantage, and you both of you know it. I beg to apologise if I have forgotten the clergyman's profession and the lady's sex."

"You have forgotten more than that," said Julian. " You have forgotten that you were born a gentleman and bred a man of honour. So far as I am concerned, I don't ask you to remember that I am a clergyman ; I obtrude my profession on nobody : I only ask you to remember your birth and breeding. It is quite bad enough to cruelly and unjustly suspect an old friend who has never forgotten what he owes to you and to himself ; but it is still more unworthy of you to ac knowledge those suspicions in the hearing of a woman whom your own choice has doubly bound you to respect." He stopped. The two eyed each other for a moment in silence.
