"Yes, I did."

Lady Caroline looked at Lord Belpher. Lord Belpher looked at

Lady Caroline.

"You went to meet that American of yours?"

Reggie Byng slid softly from the room. He felt that he would be

happier elsewhere. He had been an acutely embarrassed spectator of

this distressing scene, and had been passing the time by shuffling

his feet, playing with his coat buttons and perspiring.

"Don't go, Reggie," said Lord Belpher.

"Well, what I mean to say is--family row and what not--if you see

what I mean--I've one or two things I ought to do--"

He vanished. Lord Belpher frowned a sombre frown. "Then it was

that man who knocked my hat off?"

"What do you mean?" said Lady Caroline. "Knocked your hat off? You

never told me he knocked your hat off."

"It was when I was asking him to let me look inside the cab. I had

grasped the handle of the door, when he suddenly struck my hat,

causing it to fly off. And, while I was picking it up, he drove

away."

"C'k," exploded Lord Marshmoreton. "C'k, c'k, c'k." He twisted his

face by a supreme exertion of will power into a mask of

indignation. "You ought to have had the scoundrel arrested," he

said vehemently. "It was a technical assault."

"The man who knocked your hat off, Percy," said Maud, "was

not . . . He was a different man altogether. A stranger."

"As if you would be in a cab with a stranger," said Lady Caroline

caustically. "There are limits, I hope, to even your indiscretions."

Lord Marshmoreton cleared his throat. He was sorry for Maud, whom

he loved.

"Now, looking at the matter broadly--"

"Be quiet," said Lady Caroline.

Lord Marshmoreton subsided.

"I wanted to avoid you," said Maud, "so I jumped into the first cab

I saw."

"I don't believe it," said Percy.

"It's the truth."

"You are simply trying to put us off the scent."

Lady Caroline turned to Maud. Her manner was plaintive. She looked

like a martyr at the stake who deprecatingly lodges a timid

complaint, fearful the while lest she may be hurting the feelings

of her persecutors by appearing even for a moment out of sympathy

with their activities.

"My dear child, why will you not be reasonable in this matter? Why

will you not let yourself be guided by those who are older and

wiser than you?"

"Exactly," said Lord Belpher.

"The whole thing is too absurd."

"Precisely," said Lord Belpher.

Lady Caroline turned on him irritably.

"Please do not interrupt, Percy. Now, you've made me forget what I

was going to say."

"To my mind," said Lord Marshmoreton, coming to the surface once

more, "the proper attitude to adopt on occasions like the present--"




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