"Poor Sophie!" she thought. "And this one will make greater mischief
here." Then, aloud to him: "Your father was a good fellow, but he did
wild things."

"I do not see the connection," he answered. "I am not a good man, and I
shall do wilder things--is that it?"

"You will do mad things," she replied hardly above a whisper, and talked
once more with Captain Maudsley. Gaston now turned to his grandfather,
who had heard a sentence here and there, and felt that the young man
carried off the situation well enough. He then began to talk in a
general way about Gaston's voyage, of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
expeditions to the Arctic, drawing Lady Dargan into the conversation.

Whatever might be said of Sir William Belward he was an excellent host.
He had a cool, unmalicious wit, but that man was unwise who offered
himself to its severity. To-night he surpassed himself in suggestive
talk, until, all at once, seeing Lady Dargan's eyes fixed on Gaston,
he went silent, sitting back in his chair abstracted. Soon, however,
a warning glance from his wife brought him back and saved Lady Dargan
from collapse; for it seemed impossible to talk alone to this ghost of
her past.

At this moment Gaston heard a voice near:

"As like as if he'd stepped out of the picture, if it weren't for the
clothes. A Gaston too!"

The speaker was Lord Dargan. He was talking to Archdeacon Varcoe.