He was anxious therefore to
quit the scene of action. But, to his annoyance, when he bade Margaret
good-evening, Ralph also rose and expressed his wish to walk with him
in the direction of his chambers. “I suppose you couldn’t put me up for the night, old chappie!” he said
with his most languid air. “Decidedly not!” replied Pennell. “I have only my own bedroom, and I’ve
no intention of your sharing it. Why do you not go back to Richmond, or
put up at an hotel?”

“Doosid inhospitable!” remarked Captain Pullen, with a faded smile. “Sorry you think so, but a man cannot give what he does not possess. You had better stay and keep your sister-in-law company for a little
while. I have work to do and am going straight home!”

“All right! I’ll walk with you a little way,” persisted Ralph, and the
two young men left the house together. As soon as they found themselves in the street, Captain Pullen attacked
his cousin, eagerly. “I say, Pennell, what is the exact direction of the Red House?”

“Why do you want to know?” enquired his companion. “Because I feel that I owe the Baroness a visit. I acknowledge that I
was wrong not to write and make my apologies, but you must know what it
is--with a deuce of a lot of women to look after, and the whole gang
crying their eyes out, and everything thrown on my shoulders, coffin,
funeral, taking them over from Heyst to England, and all--it was enough
to drive everything else out of a man’s head. You must acknowledge
that.”

“You owe no excuses to me, Pullen, neither do I quite believe in them. You have had plenty of time since to remedy your negligence, even if
you did forget to be courteous at the moment!”

“I know that, and you’re quite right about the other thing. I had more
reasons than one for letting the matter drop. You are a man and I can
tell you with impunity what would set the women tearing my eyes out. I _did_ flirt a bit with Harriet Brandt, perhaps more than was quite
prudent in the circumstances--”

“You mean the circumstance of your engagement to Miss Leyton?”

“Yes and No! If I had been free, it would have been all the
same--perhaps worse, for I should not have had a loophole of escape. For you see Miss Brandt is not the sort of girl that any man could
marry.”

“Why not?” demanded Pennell with some asperity. “Oh! because--well! you should hear old Phillips talk of her and her
parents. They were the most awful people, and she has black blood in
her, her mother was a half-caste, so you see it would be impossible
for any man in my position to think of marrying her! One might get a
piebald son and heir! Ha! ha! ha! But putting all that aside, she is
one of the demndest fascinating little women I ever came across--you
would say so too, if you had seen as much of her as I did--I can’t tell
you what it is exactly, but she has a drawing way about her, that pulls
a fellow into the net before he knows what he is about. And her voice,
by Jove!--have you heard her sing?”

“I have, but that has nothing to do that I can see with the subject
under discussion. You, an engaged man, who had no more right to
philander with a girl, than if you had been married, appear to me to
have followed this young lady about and paid her attentions, which
were, to say the least of them, compromising, never announcing the
fact, meanwhile, that you were bound to Miss Leyton. After which, you
left her, without a word of explanation, to think what she chose of
your conduct. And now you wish to see her again, in order to apologise. Am I right?”

“Pretty well, only you make such a serious matter out of a little fun!”

“Well, then, I repeat that if you are wise, you will save yourself the
trouble, Ralph! Miss Brandt is happily too sensible to have been taken
in by your pretence of making love to her. She estimates you at your
true value. She knows that you are engaged to Elinor Leyton--that you
were engaged all the time she knew you--and, I think, she rather pities
Miss Leyton for being engaged to you!”

But this point of view had never presented itself before to the
inflated vanity of Ralph Pullen. “_Pities_ her!” he exclaimed, “the devil!”

“I daresay it seems incomprehensible to you that any woman should not
be thankful to accept at your hands the crumbs that may fall from
another’s table, but with regard to Miss Brandt, I assure you it is
true! And even were it otherwise, I am certain Madame Gobelli would not
admit you to her house. You know the sort of person she is! She can be
very violent if she chooses, and the names she called you yesterday,
were not pretty ones. I had much trouble, as your relative, to stand
by and listen to them quietly. Yet I could not say that they were
undeserved!”

“O well! I daresay!” returned Ralph, impatiently. “Let us allow, for
the sake of argument, that you are right, and that I behaved like a
brute! The matter lies only between Hally Brandt and myself. The old
woman has nothing to do with it! She never met the girl till she went
to Heyst. What I want to do is to see Hally again and make my peace
with her! You know how easily women are won over. A pretty present--a
few kisses and excuses,--a few tears--and the thing is done. I
shouldn’t like to leave England without making my peace with the little
girl. Couldn’t you get her to come to your chambers, and let me meet
her there? Then the Baroness need know nothing about it!”

“I thought you told us just now, that you had had a reconciliation with
Miss Leyton on condition that you were to be a good boy for the future. Does that not include a surreptitious meeting with Miss Brandt?”

“I suppose it does, but we have to make all sorts of promises
where women are concerned. A nice kind of life a man would lead,
if he consented to be tied to his wife’s apron-strings, and never
go anywhere, nor see anyone, of whom she did not approve. I swore
to everything she and old Walthamstowe asked me, just for peace’s
sake,--but if they imagine I’m going to be hampered like that, they
must be greater fools than I take them for!”

“You must do as you think right, Pullen, but I am not going to help you
to break your word!”

“Tell me where the Red House is! Tell me whereabouts Hally takes her
daily walks!” urged Captain Pullen. “I shall tell you nothing--you must find out for yourself!”

“Well! you are damned particular!” exclaimed his cousin, “one would
think this little half-caste was a princess of the Blood Royal. What is
she, when all’s said and done? The daughter of a mulatto and a man who
made himself so detested that he was murdered by his own servants--the
bastard of a----”

“Stop!” cried Pennell, so vehemently that the passers-by turned their
heads to look at him, “I don’t believe it, and if it is true, I do not
wish to hear it! Miss Brandt may be all that you say--I am not in a
position to contradict your assertions--but to me she represents only a
friendless and unprotected woman, who has a right to our sympathy and
respect.”

“A friendless woman!” sneered Captain Pullen, “yes!