"You won't put me off with your blarney," blazed the knight. "I know you, I've met men like you before."
"Don't boast," begged the Duke.
"I'll clear you out neck and crop——"
"Neck perhaps," corrected the Duke, "but crop no; not being a fowl of the air, and being to a great extent anatomically ordinary, your illustration lacks point."
"As to Alicia," said the knight with deadly earnestness. "I absolutely forbid her to have anything further to do with you."
The Duke was silent. He looked at the elder man a little curiously, and Sir Harry, interpreting the silence in quite the wrong way, pursued his mistaken advantage. "You must understand that she is in a sense my ward——"
"Mr. Nape!"
The Duke addressed his editor.
"Would you be kind enough to see me later in the day—what I have to say to Sir Harry is no fit thing for a young editor to hear."
He said this gravely, and Mr. Nape made a reluctant exit.