"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Because, my boy," replied Sir Eustace with a cynical smile, "I have
eight thousand a year and you have eight hundred--because I have a title
and you have none. That you may happen to be the better fellow of the
two will, I fear, not make up for those deficiencies."

Bottles with a motion of his hand waved his brother's courtly compliment
away, as it were, and turned on him with a set white face.

"I do not believe you, Eustace," he said. "Do you understand what you
make out this lady to be when you say that she could kiss me and tell me
that she loved me--for she did both yesterday--and promise to marry you
to-day?"

Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. "I think that the lady in question
has done something like that before, George."

"That was years ago and under pressure. Now, Eustace, you have made this
charge; you have upset my faith in Madeline, whom I hope to marry, and I
say, prove it--prove it if you can. I will stake my life you cannot."

"Don't agitate yourself, my dear fellow; and as to betting, I would not
risk more than a fiver. Now oblige me by stepping behind those velvet
curtains--_a la_ 'School for Scandal'--and listening in perfect silence
to my conversation with Lady Croston. She does not know that you are
here, so she will not miss you. You can escape when you have had enough