She glanced at his well-worn riding-suit and red flannel shirt.

He laughed again.

“Some of ’em wear a robe sometimes,” he said; “but only on state occasions, and when they’ve got a seat in the House of Lords. I haven’t.”

“I don’t know in the least what you mean,” she said. “It sounds very funny.”

“It is very funny,” he assented, with a smile.

“And all lords are very rich, aren’t they? They’re obliged to be, I suppose?”

He looked at her as if he thought she might be chaffing him; but her beautiful face was quite innocent of badinage.

“Not at all,” he replied. “Some of them are very rich; a great many haven’t any coin at all. I count among the last.”

She looked at him thoughtfully.