“Yes, sir!”
Lord Lionel glared at him. “Gilly, what is the matter with you?” he demanded. “What made you do it, boy? Be a little plain with me, I beg of you!”
The Duke sat down beside him, and laid a hand on his knee. “It is very ridiculous,” he said, in his soft voice. “I found it a dead bore to be Duke of Sale, and I thought I would try how it would be to be nobody in particular.”
“Upon my word! I should have thought you would have had more sense.”
“But I hadn’t, sir.”
Lord Lionel gripped the hand on his knee. “Now, my boy, don’t be afraid to own the truth to me! Yon know I have nothing but your welfare at heart! If you went off on this start because of anything I may have said to you—in short, if you did not like the arrangement I had made for you, there was not the least need for you to have offered for Lady Harriet! I never had any desire to force you into what you had a distaste for. Indeed, if your mind misgives you—though it will be a damned awkward business!—I will see to it—”
“No, sir, I am very happy in my engagement,” the Duke interrupted. “Much happier than I ever thought to be! She is an angel!”
Lord Lionel was slightly taken aback. He stared at the Duke under his bushy brows, and remarked dryly: “This is a different tune from the one you sang at Sale, when I first broached the matter to you!”
“I was not then aware what a treasure you had chosen for me, sir. But I told you I had been learning some few things of late.”
Lord Lionel grunted. “Well, if you have learnt to have a little more common-sense, I am glad of it, but why you must needs run off without a word to anyone is past my understanding! If you had wanted to go out of town, I am sure it was quite your own affair, and you might have done so without question.”