A Damsel in Distress

"Please," said Lady Caroline.

Lord Marshmoreton stopped, and resumed his silent communion with the

stuffed bird.

"You can't stop yourself being in love, Aunt Caroline," said Maud.

"You can be stopped if you've somebody with a level head looking

after you."

Lord Marshmoreton tore himself away from the bird.

"Why, when I was at Oxford in the year '87," he said chattily, "I

fancied myself in love with the female assistant at a tobacconist

shop. Desperately in love, dammit. Wanted to marry her. I recollect

my poor father took me away from Oxford and kept me here at Belpher

under lock and key. Lock and key, dammit. I was deucedly upset at

the time, I remember." His mind wandered off into the glorious

past. "I wonder what that girl's name was. Odd one can't remember

names. She had chestnut hair and a mole on the side of her chin. I

used to kiss it, I recollect--"

Lady Caroline, usually such an advocate of her brother's researches

into the family history, cut the reminiscences short.

"Never mind that now."

"I don't. I got over it. That's the moral."

"Well," said Lady Caroline, "at any rate poor father acted with

great good sense on that occasion. There seems nothing to do but to

treat Maud in just the same way. You shall not stir a step from the

castle till you have got over this dreadful infatuation. You will

be watched."

"I shall watch you," said Lord Belpher solemnly, "I shall watch

your every movement."

A dreamy look came into Maud's brown eyes.

"Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage," she said

softly.

"That wasn't your experience, Percy, my boy," said Lord

Marshmoreton.

"They make a very good imitation," said Lady Caroline coldly,

ignoring the interruption.

Maud faced her defiantly. She looked like a princess in captivity

facing her gaolers.

"I don't care. I love him, and I always shall love him, and nothing

is ever going to stop me loving him--because I love him," she

concluded a little lamely.

"Nonsense," said Lady Caroline. "In a year from now you will have

forgotten his name. Don't you agree with me, Percy?"

"Quite," said Lord Belpher.

"I shan't."

"Deuced hard things to remember, names," said Lord Marshmoreton.

"If I've tried once to remember that tobacconist girl's name, I've

tried a hundred times. I have an idea it began with an 'L.' Muriel

or Hilda or something."

"Within a year," said Lady Caroline, "you will be wondering how you

ever came to be so foolish. Don't you think so, Percy?"

"Quite," said Lord Belpher.

Lord Marshmoreton turned on him irritably.