‘It is the Greek I mean to ask.’

‘All right. I hope she’ll take you. I think, on the whole, you suit each other. If I were at all disposed to that sort of bondage, I don’t know a girl I’d rather risk the road with than the Irish cousin, Miss Kearney.’

‘She is very pretty, exceedingly obliging, and has most winning manners.’

‘She is good-tempered, and she is natural—the two best things a woman can be.’

‘Why not come down along with me and try your luck?’

‘When do you go?’

‘By the 10.30 train to-morrow. I shall arrive at Moate by four o’clock, and reach the castle to dinner.’

‘They expect you?’

‘Only so far, that I have telegraphed a line to say I’m going down to bid “Good-bye” before I sail for Guatemala. I don’t suspect they know where that is, but it’s enough when they understand it is far away.’

‘I’ll go with you.’