"He is intolerable with them, and would be a bore without them."

"But my Lord himself smokes. Will you not tolerate him?"

"He is an old man, a general officer, and my father," said Lady
Mabel. "After a life of hard service in the worst climates in the
world, he may need indulgences not necessary to younger men. Besides,
he is obliged to see so much of his officers. If he could choose his
companions, he would lead a very different life. When we happen to be
alone here," continued Lady Mabel, "he never sits long after dinner,
seldom touches a cigar, and it is evidently only his position, and the
habits forced upon him in a long military career, which interfere with
his quiet tastes and love of domestic life."

L'Isle looked at Lady Mabel to see if she was in earnest. She had only
said what she willingly believed on rather slight foundations. In
truth, the novelty of having his daughter with him on the few
occasions on which they were here left alone together, had proved of
quite sufficient interest to enable Lord Strathern to dispense with
other society and excitements, and led him to look back and to speak
much of his short married life, and far beyond that, the days of his
boyhood. L'Isle found himself convicted of contributing, with others,
to mar the comfort and spoil the habits of the most abstemious and
domestic old gentleman in the king's service. This was plainly a point
on which it was not safe to contradict Lady Mabel, if he would keep in
her good graces--so he gladly waved the discussion.

Mrs. Shortridge, under the reviving influence of her love of
sight-seeing, now asked L'Isle to suggest some excursion for them, on
which they might see something new. But she begged that it might be