potential. He was certainly handsome, with that dark, aquiline,
commanding beauty which women so generally recognise as dominant. With
men he was distant and cold; but such a bearing never deters womankind.
The inscrutable laws of sex have so arranged that even a timid woman is
not afraid of a fierce and haughty man. And so it was that there was
hardly a woman of any kind or degree, who lived within view of Brent's
Rock, who did not cherish some form of secret admiration for the
handsome wastrel. The category was a wide one, for Brent's Rock rose up
steeply from the midst of a level region and for a circuit of a hundred
miles it lay on the horizon, with its high old towers and steep roofs
cutting the level edge of wood and hamlet, and far-scattered mansions.

So long as Geoffrey Brent confined his dissipations to London and Paris
and Vienna--anywhere out of sight and sound of his home--opinion was
silent. It is easy to listen to far off echoes unmoved, and we can treat
them with disbelief, or scorn, or disdain, or whatever attitude of
coldness may suit our purpose. But when the scandal came close home it
was another matter; and the feelings of independence and integrity which
is in people of every community which is not utterly spoiled, asserted
itself and demanded that condemnation should be expressed. Still there
was a certain reticence in all, and no more notice was taken of the
existing facts than was absolutely necessary. Margaret Delandre bore
herself so fearlessly and so openly--she accepted her position as the
justified companion of Geoffrey Brent so naturally that people came to
believe that she was secretly married to him, and therefore thought it
wiser to hold their tongues lest time should justify her and also make
her an active enemy.

The one person who, by his interference, could have settled all doubts
was debarred by circumstances from interfering in the matter. Wykham