Kitty had been prepared for reproaches, but scarcely for this. It was a moment before she could collect her wits enough to answer: “But you could not wish to marry one who is—alas!—an impostor? Worse! It pains me to say it, for I too had the greatest kindness for Camille! but I fear, Olivia, he is an adventurer! He has deceived us all I The shock to me has been severe; to you how much more so it must have been!”

“Oh, yes, for I knew on the instant that Mama would dislike it extremely! But he has not deceived me, dear Miss Charing! Nothing could be more noble than his conduct!”

“Olivia!” said Kitty, trying to reassemble her thoughts. “You cannot mean that you would be willing to ally yourself with him!”

“Oh, if it were possible!” sighed Olivia. “I am sure I do not know why a man should not be a gamester, if his talents make it an eligible profession for him! Can it be that you suspect him of employing cheating tricks? I assure you, it is unjust! He says that Greeking methods never answer, and that he never uses them, save in the direst straits! His Papa’s houses are patronized by all the grandest people, and they never use loaded dice, or buy inferior wines! That, Camille says, is a very false economy. Everything should always be of the best, so that one’s clients may be pleased, and come again and again. Of course, it costs a great deal of money at the outset, but the returns are enormous!”

Kitty could think of nothing better to say than: “Are they, indeed?”

“Yes, although there are, as one can readily perceive, great hazards. Only fancy! A run of luck may break the bank at any moment! How exciting it must be! I had previously no notion!”

“No?” said Kitty, quite stunned.

“No, for I knew nothing of such matters.” Olivia sighed, and relapsed into a mood of dejection. “But it is all to no avail! Mama would never give her consent.”

“You must love my cousin very much!” Kitty said. “Oh, dear, I wish—But that’s to no purpose! Do you think, if Camille were to engage upon some respectable occupation —? No, I suppose it would not answer.”

“Oh, no, for how should he succeed? He was bred to his profession, you see, and you must perceive that with his air and address, and his great skill, it is the very thing for him! Moreover, it is very romantic to be for ever pitting one’s wits against everyone, and I could not endure it if I were to be the means of thrusting him into some occupation which he would think a dead bore! I must put him out of my thoughts, though of course I never shall, for how shocking it would be if I were to ruin his whole career! Besides,” added Olivia, on a sob, “it is out of the question that I should be able to do so! Mama says I must make up my mind to it to accept Sir Henry, if he should be so obliging as to offer for me!”

They had turned, by this time, and were retracing their steps. “That,” said Kitty decidedly, “you must never do! My poor Olivia, it is the most shocking coil, and I don’t know what to say, except that it would be quite wicked of you to marry that odious old man!”

“Indeed, I would much rather die!” Olivia said earnestly. “The very thought of it casts me into such despair that I am sure it would be better for me to be dead! But Mama says that he cannot live for ever, and in the meantime I may have as many lovers as I please, provided only that I am discreet. But I do not want many lovers!”

“Good God, I should hope not!” exclaimed Kitty.

“I shall never love anyone but my Camille!” said Olivia, showing an alarming tendency to dissolve into tears.

“For heavens’ sake, Olivia, don’t start to cry!” begged Kitty. “Recollect, it is not in your Mama’s power to force you into a distasteful marriage! Oh, if only I could see what was best to be done, but I am wholly at a loss!”

“Oh, Miss Charing, will you help me?”

“Yes, yes, to the utmost of my power, but it is all such a dreadful tangle—Olivia, pray dry your eyes! We are approaching the library!”

Olivia obediently produced her handkerchief, saying gratefully: “I knew you would stand my friendl”

Since Kitty, though anxious to befriend her, had no idea how this was to be done, she felt very much consciencestricken, and was glad to be able to restore her to Mrs. Broughty before she was called upon to outline some scheme for her relief. The only course that offered itself to her was to confide the whole to Freddy; but as he had sent a message to Berkeley Square that he would dine with his sister that evening, she had a good many hours to while away before she could seek his advice. These were spent by her in concocting and immediately discarding a number of quite unsuitable stratagems, and in blaming herself bitterly for her part in the affair. A diversion was created midway through the afternoon by Mr. Westruther, who came to pay a morning-visit. As Meg had retired to lie down upon her bed, Kitty received him alone, and would not have received him at all had she had the least warning of his arrival. But he was ushered into the drawing-room, where she sat brooding by the fire, so that she had no opportunity to deny herself.

She accorded him a somewhat cool welcome, but he was quite impervious to such snubs, merely laughing at her, and saying, with a quizzical lift of one eyebrow: “Vexed with me, Kitty? For taking Meg to the masquerade? Now, consider how unjust! Am I vexed with you for allowing your fascinating cousin to be your cicisbeo? Certainly not! I hope you enjoyed an excellent evening’s entertainment.”

She ignored the greater part of this speech. “No, I did not enjoy it, and I am astonished that you could have taken Meg to such an improper party!”

“Little prude!” he said, amused. “Did not the dashing Chevalier take good care of you? I had thought him to have been quite in his element!”

“I collect,” said Kitty, boldly confronting him, “that you have taken my cousin in aversion. Will you be so good as to tell me why?”

“My dear Kitty, what in the world can I have said to put such a notion as that into your head? You wrong me, really you do! So far from taking the Chevalier in aversion, I admire his address profoundly, and quite envy him his assurance. Such delightful Gallic polish, and so skilled a card-player! It is a privilege to have met him. Indeed, I hope he may be going to do me the honour of visiting me this very evening, to pit his skill against mine. I am myself a gamester, you know, and I have a great desire to measure myself against one whom I have reason to think a past master in the art.”

She was dismayed, but summoned up enough courage to reply: “I wish you may not have cause to regret it!”

“Ah, well!” he said, his eyes glinting down at her. “Perhaps he may have the advantage of me in some respects, but in others I venture to think that I have the advantage of him.”

She was silenced, and he presently left her a prey to uneasiness. There could be no doubt that he knew that Olivia had been at the masquerade, for she recalled that she had herself told him that she was there with the Scortons; and she could not rid her mind of its suspicion that his invitation to her cousin to visit him must have some bearing on this circumstance.

When Freddy arrived in Berkeley Square that evening, she could scarcely restrain her impatience to take him apart, and pour her apprehensions into his ear; but as it lacked only a few minutes to the dinner-hour, and Meg had already joined her in the drawing-room, this was clearly ineligible. Moreover, it immediately became apparent that grave cares were pressing upon Freddy’s soul, for upon his sister’s demanding of him, in a rallying tone, whether Charles had already descended on the town, he replied: “No, term don’t end for another ten days. It’s worse than that! Dashed if I didn’t receive a letter from him this morning! Yes, and what’s more, I had to pay sixpence for it, which I’d as lief not have done. It ain’t that I grudge sixpence, but what I mean is, why the deuce should I have to give sixpence for a thing I’d as soon, not have?”

“Oh, heavens, is he in a scrape?” exclaimed Meg.

“Well, of course he is! Knew that as soon as I saw the letter! Stands to reason! What would he want to write to me for, if he hadn’t made a cake of himself in some way or another? Never knew such a fellow! Mind, I daresay it’s only some snyder dunning him, but there’s nothing for it: I shall have to take a bolt to Oxford tomorrow.”

“Going out of town now1.” cried Kitty.

“Yes, but I shan’t be gone above one night. Dashed inconvenient, but the thing is, if Charlie’s landed himself in the basket, must pull him out! Fond of him,” he added, on an explanatory note. “Besides—wouldn’t do for it to come to m’father’s ears!”

“No, indeed! Of course you must go! I hope you may not find that anything very serious is amiss.”

“Yes, I hope so too,” said Freddy. “Because if it’s anything that means I must go and talk to the Bag-wig—what I mean is, the Dean—it’s no use going to Oxford at all, because I don’t suppose he’d listen to me. Never did when I was up myself, and dashed well had to talk to him. Not that I wanted to, mind you, but there it was: obliged to!”

“Could it be that Charlie has become entangled?” suggested Meg, looking anxious.

Freddy rubbed his nose. “Got into the muslin-company? Might, of course, though he ain’t one for the petticoats. Oh, well, if that’s all it is, nothing to worry about! Buy her off!”

On this comforting thought, they all went in to dinner. The lighthearted insouciance which characterized the Standens had its effect upon Kitty; and her desponding mood soon changed to one of hope. She was still quite unable to see any way in which she could help Olivia to overcome her troubles, but the cheerful nonchalance with which Freddy confronted the task of rescuing his graceless junior from whatever dire straits he had fallen into insensibly made her feel that the tangle caused by her cousin’s descent upon London would not be beyond his power to unravel.