I never congratulated you enough, but you probably
understood that my head was full of other things. You fought
splendidly, and I can't say I regret the issue. You will do much better
than I ever could."
Mr. Stocks smiled happily. The wheel of his fortunes was bringing him
very near the top. All the way up he had had Alice for a companion; and
that young woman, happy from a wholly different cause, had been
wonderfully gracious. He felt himself on Mr. Lewis Haystoun's level at
last, and the baffling sense of being on a different plane, which he had
always experienced in his company, was gone, he hoped, for ever. So he
became frank and confidential, forgot the pomp of his talk and his
inevitable principles, and assisted in laying lunch.
Lady Manorwater drove her nephew into a corner.
"Where have you been. Lewis, all these days? If you had been anybody
else, I should have said you were sulking. I must speak to you
seriously. Do you know that Alice has been breaking her heart for you?
I won't have the poor child made miserable, and though I don't in the
least want you to marry her, yet; I cannot have you playing with her."
Lewis had grown suddenly very red.
"I think you are mistaken," he said stiffly. "Miss Wishart does not
care a straw for me. If she is in love with anybody, it is with
Stocks."
"I am much older than you, my dear, and I should know better.
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