"Never," said Stella, gravely, but with a smile.
"No!" he said. "Do you know I think you are capable of it if you were provoked?"
"Provoked?" said Stella.
"Dared, I mean," he explained. "You know we used to have a game at school called 'Dare him?' I expect all fellows have played it. One fellow does the most extraordinary things and dares the other fellows to do it. Leycester used to play it best. He was a regular good hand at it. The worst of it was that we all used to get thrashed; the masters didn't care about half-a-dozen fellows flinging stones at the windows and climbing on to the roof at the dead of night."
"Poor masters!" said Stella.
He laughed.
"Yes, they didn't have a particularly fine time of it when Leycester was at school."
As he spoke, he glanced at the tall figure of Lord Leycester in front of them with an admiring air such as a school-boy might wear.
"There isn't much that Leycester wouldn't dare," he said.