"If you put me to the _test_."

"Oh, yes, you can," he said, affectionately. Then he got up restlessly
from the table. "But don't let's talk about it. Somehow I can't stand
it--yet. I just wanted you to know that I liked them--and I'd be glad if
you'd be civil to them--that's all. Hullo--here they are!" For as he
moved across the room he caught sight, through a side window commanding
the park, of a pony-carriage just driving into the wide gravel space
before the house.

"Already? Their pony must have seven-leagued boots, to have caught you up
in this time."

"Oh! I was overtaken by Undershaw, and he kept me talking. He told me the
most extraordinary thing! You've no idea what's been happening at the
Tower. That old brute Melrose! But I say--!" He made a dash across the
room.

"What's the matter?"

"I must go and put those pictures away, in case--"

A far door opened and shut noisily behind him. He was gone.

"In case he asks her to go and see his sitting-room? This is all very
surprising."

Lady Tatham sat on at the tea-table, her chin in her hands. It was quite
true that she had brought up her son with unconventional ideas; that she
had unconventional ideas herself on family and marriage. All the same,