“Did he offer no resistance?”

“Certainly not. Why should he?”

“Because he has been in the habit of turning back all visitors.”

“Ah,” said Mowbray, listlessly, “that is a thing you ought not to allow.”

“I was afraid,” said Edith, “that he had tried to keep you back.”

“Me?” said Mowbray, with strong emphasis. “He knows better than that, I fancy.”

“And yet he is capable of any amount of insolence.”

“Indeed?” said Mowbray, languidly. “Then why don't you turn him off, and get a civil man?”

“Because—because,” said Edith, in a tremulous voice, “there is one here who—who countermands all my orders.”

“Ah!” said Mowbray, in a listless tone, which seemed to say that he took no interest whatever in these matters.