Stocks, and she set herself heroically to the task. She had never heard
of him, but then she was not well versed in the minutiae of things
political, and he clearly was a politician. Doubtless to her father his
name was a household word. So she spoke to him of Glenavelin and its
beauties.

He asked her if she had seen Royston Castle, the residence of his friend
the Duke of Sanctamund. When he had stayed there he had been much
impressed--

Then she spoke wildly of anything, of books and pictures and
people and politics. She found him well-informed, clever, and dogmatic.
The culminating point was reached when she embarked on a stray remark
concerning certain events then happening in India.

He contradicted her with a lofty politeness.

She quoted a book on Kashmir.

He laughed the authority to scorn. "Lewis Haystoun?" he asked. "What
can he know about such things? A wandering dilettante, the worst type
of the pseudo-culture of our universities. He must see all things
through the spectacles of his upbringing."

Fortunately he spoke in a low voice, but Lord Manorwater caught the
name.

"You are talking about Lewie," he said; and then to the table at large,
"do you know that Lewie is home? I saw him to-day."