"That's so," was the cheerful response. "But I didn't choose, did I? And I don't now. But all the same, I should like to see you look a little more chippy, Ley."
Leycester looked up at him and smiled, grimly.
"I wonder whether you were ever in any trouble in your life, Charlie," he said.
Lord Charles drained the glass of whisky and water that stood beside him.
"Yes," he said; "but I'm like a duck, it pours off my back, and there I am again."
"I wish I were like a duck!" said Leycester, with bitter self-scorn. "Charlie, you have the misfortune to be tied to a haunted man. I am haunted by the ghost of an old and lost happiness, and I can't get rid of it."
Charlie looked at him and then away.
"I know," he said; "I haven't said anything, but I know. Well, I am not surprised; she is a beautiful creature, and one of the sort to stick in a man's mind. I'm very sorry, old man. There isn't any chance of its coming right?"
"None whatever," said Leycester, "and that is why I am a great fool in clinging to it."
He got up and began to pace the room, and the color mounted to his haggard face.