Florimel returned to the gentlemen, and they rode homewards. On the way she said suddenly to the earl,
“Can you tell me, Liftore, who Epictetus was?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” answered his lordship. “One of the old fellows.”
She turned to Lenorme. Happily the Christian heathen was not altogether unknown to the painter.
“May I inquire why your ladyship asks?” he said, when he had told all he could at the moment recollect.
“Because,” she answered, “I left my groom sitting on his horse’s head reading Epictetus.”
“By Jove!” exclaimed Liftore. “Ha! ha! ha! In the original, I suppose!”
“I don’t doubt it,” said Florimel.
In about two hours Malcolm reported himself. Lord Liftore had gone home, they told him. The painter-fellow, as Wallis called him, had stayed to lunch, but was now gone also, and Lady Lossie was alone in the drawing-room.
She sent for him.