"I did not mean to mention any name,—till I was sure it might be necessary. But it is Miss Trefoil."
"Eleanor had told me something of it."
"Eleanor knows nothing about this, and I do not wish you to tell her. The young lady was here with her mother,—and for the matter of that with a gentleman to whom she was certainly engaged;—but nothing particular occurred here. That unfortunate ball was going on when poor Caneback was dying. But I met her since that at Mistletoe."
"I can hardly advise, you know, unless you tell me everything."
Then Lord Rufford began. "These kind of things are sometimes deuced hard upon a man. Of course if a man were a saint or a philosopher or a Joseph he wouldn't get into such scrapes,—and perhaps every man ought to be something of that sort. But I don't know how a man is to do it, unless it's born with him."
"A little prudence I should say."
"You might as well tell a fellow that it is his duty to be six feet high."
"But what have you said to the young lady,—or what has she said to you?"
"There has been a great deal more of the latter than the former. I say so to you, but of course it is not to be said that I have said so. I cannot go forth to the world complaining of a young lady's conduct to me. It is a matter in which a man must not tell the truth."
"But what is the truth?"