"Because Lord Derrington is under a wrong impression. He has met your sister, and in this very room."
"I beg your pardon," began Derrington. "I----"
Ireland cut him short. "She called to see you here about the renewal of the Amelia Square lease."
"Miss Bull?" said his lordship. "I thought there was something familiar about her face. So Miss Bull is Mrs. Ward's sister?"
"She told me so herself," was Ireland's reply.
CHAPTER XVI
[THE PIPE OF PEACE]
Brendon was much astonished a day or two later to receive an invitation to dine with his grandfather. After the somewhat stormy interview he had participated in with the old tyrant, George certainly never expected to be treated well by the man whose path he had crossed. He had heard many tales of Derrington's pride, and of his relentless pursuit of those whom he conceived had done him wrong. As George had fought the old man with his own weapons, and had come off victor, he did not expect to be pardoned.
But in this he was wrong. Derrington, sickened with Walter's milk-and-water ways, saw in Brendon a worthy successor who would be able to hold his own in will and word, and would shed fresh luster on the house. Had George been polite, and what the old lord sneeringly called cringing, he would never have received the invitation. As it was, Derrington took him to his hard old heart. He chuckled to think of Walter's dismay when he heard that he had an elder cousin and would not be likely to inherit the title or the money.
However astonished, Brendon was too much a man-of-the-world to reveal his feelings. On the evening in question he presented himself at the mansion in St. Giles Square, scrupulously groomed and brushed. Derrington looked approvingly on his dress, which set off a handsome figure to advantage.